No matter how many projects I have going, knitting, sewing, embroidery or anything else, I like to have one plain stockinette or garter stitch project going. I’m very good at cultivating bad habits and my newest one is not being able to concentrate while reading if I’m not knitting at the same time. I have a great little metal thingy I blogged about before that holds my books open while I read and if I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t get anything read, which isn’t much. My professors would weep if they knew this English major’s reading habits. Any-hoo, that would be the reason behind all of the stockinette socks and hats and such on here. I like my charts and colorwork and lace, but when I want to read or watch a movie with subtitles, stockinette all the way. So, even though I really, really need to finish up the thumbs on Kris’ Christmas mittens, which are now going to be St. Patrick’s Day mittens, I’m knitting miles of garter stitch instead.

I’ve been planning on knitting Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket for two years or more, but never managed to get around to it. For the uninitiated, the “surprise” part refers to the fact that the jacket looks like a garter stitch amorphous blob until folded up origami-style and viola! Baby jacket! Not “surprise, you’re having a baby” or a surprise left by a baby, as has been speculated by non-knitting friends when they ask what I’m knitting. And, no, I have not yet learned to just say “a baby jacket” in response to that question.

I had planned to use the leftovers from my striped Noro scarf from a few winters ago. I had two balls of Noro Kureyon and some gray Brown Sheep Lambs Pride worsted I thought would look nice together and there would be enough for a jacket. As an aside, this BSJ is for a theoretical baby. I’m not having a baby, no one in my immediate vicinity is having a baby and I wouldn’t put Noro on a baby. This is just for the process. Anyway. As you can see in the picture above, there is lovely rainbow-y Noro, but no gray Lambs Pride. And that’s because I couldn’t find it. My stash now consists of two Rubbermaid containers of odd balls of yarn, and I can’t find a gray skein of yarn. Lame. I found some black Lambs Pride I had planned to make a felted bag out of, which project is now out of the question as I now live in an apartment with a coin laundry and lived at home with free access to a washing machine when I planned that project. My quarters are precious, I plan to keep them. So I cast on in the black, didn’t like the stripe pattern I had started and ripped out. Cast on again, messed up the decreases, ripped out again. Cast on, knit all the way to the beach and back two Saturdays ago, and realized just how ugly the yarn combination was, and ripped again. I rooted around in the stash and found some cream colored Lambs Pride, cast on, and quickly realized that I was running out of yarn and wouldn’t make it to the end of the project. This little jacket’s purpose in life is to rid me of stash, so buying more cream colored Lambs Pride isn’t an option. Back into the stash, and I came up with a cream colored skein of Cascade 220, which I don’t remember what I bought for, so now it’s a BSJ.

I’m really liking the cream and rainbow combination here, and I like the reverse side better than the right side. I’m not sure how it’s going to be seamed up, but I’m fairly sure I can use the reverse side as the right side.

Just as a note about the pattern, it’s written just as pithy as the rest of EZ’s other patterns, and it would be a good idea to have a passing acquaintance with her writing style and patterns before casting on. Also, there is a Baby Surprise Jacket group on Ravelry that is rife with information and there’s also a KnitWiki article with some helpful hints. KnitWiki! I had no idea it existed.

Also, Portland is the best at many things, graffiti included.

Now it’s off to cook up some vegan stuffed pasta shells. Mmmm.

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