BSJ hybrid

BSJ with Mods complete!


Back View:
The story is: I had 2 skeins of L.L.'s Worsted that looked completey different despite being from the same dye lot. I made one "standard" BSJ with one of the skeins a few weeks ago for my B.F.'s niece. I showed it to my friend "L" who has a daughter the same age, just to double check with her that it looked the right size. She loved it so much, she asked me to knit her daughter one too. I hate knitting the same thing twice; I get really bored, so we decided to tweak it a bit.

This BSJ has:
1. The Tomten Hood, a BSJ addition recommended by Meg Swansen in The Opinionated Knitter (both the BSJ and Tomten patterns are in this book) The hood opening was finished with a sc edge.
2. Longer sleeves following the instructions at this website except, I still used a crochetted chain provisional cast on, and I knit extra garter rows onto the sleeves at the end.
3. Longer body: where it says to work on the middle section only for 10 garter ridges, I knit until there were 19 (would've done 20 if the yarn didn't run out)
4. No button at the bottom; it's longer after all, and the baby is starting to walk.

Measurements:
Cuff to cuff: 23"
Arm length (neck to cuff): 9.5"
Shoulder to bottom: 13.5"
Underarm to bottom: 9"
Across chest: 9"
Across bottom: 10"
(I wanted it to fit loose so she can wear it through the winter)

Materials used: Addi turbo #6 24" (my gauge was about 5sts=1"), 1 skein Lorna's Laces "Embers", 4 skeins doubled Dale Baby Ull (burgundy), 1 skein Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK (grey). All Machine Washable.

The Mittens:
Those super-cute mittens are the result of leftover yarn. The pattern is from Robin Hansen's book, Favorite Mittens. I'm loving this book; it has great mitten patterns based on traditional mittens found in Maine (not as fancy as the lovely mitts in Selbuvotter, but still nice). It also includes a pattern for beautiful gloves, thrummed mittens, shrunken mittens, some baby/children's mittens and several matching hats.

I got some presents...
My B.F. recently returned from a trip abroad, and look what he brought me: 2 Avi Wasserman Spindles! The one on the left is made of Carob wood, and the one on the right is Olive wood with turquoise inlay. What's really cool is that my B.F. went to Mr. Wasserman's home/studio to pick these beautiful spindles for me! Of course I had to go get some yummy Fleece Artist BFL roving to spin with for these special spindles.

Fifi Fi Fo Fum!

It's pouring rain out, so sorry about the picture quality here...but this is what I've been working on the last few days:

Pattern: Fifi
Yarn: 5 balls Rowan Calmer in Tinkerbell (which I finally used after "aging" it in my stash for a year)
Needles: Knitpicks Options sz 7
(btw...have you seen their new wooden options? I'm waiting for mine to arrive in the mail!)

I realize it's a bit late in the season to start knitting such a thing, but I figure if I can finish it soon, I can wear it through October or so. (fingers crossed). Rowan Calmer is very stretchy, and it almost reminds me of Cascade Fixation, so it took me a while to get used to the feel of the yarn (translation: man, it was annoying at first!) This is my first top-down wearable, and it's pretty cool that I get to try it on as I go. It's meant to be cropped length, but I'm going to hope I can make it a bit longer before the yarn runs out. (so far, I'm on ball #2 of 5)

In other news, that BSJ made it to its recipient. She just turned 1 year old, so the 5sts=1" formula worked well! I've been requested by a friend to make another one for her daughter, but this one will have some mods...you'll see...
Answer for JUDE: With the button placement, the last 12 rows of the BSJ become the band where the buttons go, so what I did here was change to a contrasting color (red), and knit 6 rows. The end of Row #7 (RS) is where the girl's button holes go. In this example I left 4 sts between the neck edge and the top button hole, and spaced the other button holes 7 sts apart. (Since the girl's button holes start at the "bottom" of the jacket, I counted the number of sts along where the button band is, did a "yo" where I wanted my bottom button hole and continued: *K6, K2tog, yo* 4 more times, and ended with K4. Had this been a boy's jacket, the holes would be on the other side, so you'd start Row #7 with K4, *yo, K2tog, K6*, etc.) As you can see from the pics in the last post, I chose to leave a few extra stitches between the last button and the bottom of the BSJ (for room when the baby sits). Finally, I cast of in purl, so there was no visible "edge". If you need more info, you can email me at violiknit@yahoo.com

Back to my regularly scheduled life...

...or so I'm hoping!

Many apologies for being such a lax blogger lately; my exhausting summer gig is finally finished, so now I finally have time to go catch up on my fave blogs!

(btw: "exhausting summer gig" = 10 services per week, which means a combo of rehearsals (3 hours each) and concerts (about 2.5 hours). Not including NYC subway commutes, changing into concert clothes, and painting makeup on my face (I gave this up towards the end because humidity makes things melt, and I didn't want to look like Munch's "The Scream").

Here are some pics of E.Z.'s famous Baby Surprise Jacket that I knitted for my b.f.'s niece. After showing this to a friend of mine at work, I promptly got a request to make one for her daughter, and then another co-worker announced she was pregnant and asked if she could have one too. Lesson learned: the BSJ is mighty popular with the Mommies!

Yarn used: Lorna's Laces Worsted "Embers" 1 skein and leftover bits of grey and red Dale Baby Ull (doubled)
Gauge: 5 sts=1" on Addi turbo size 6. To fit a 1 year old.
Grey Kitty Buttons from M&J Trimming


I have a couple more friends who just had babies, so it looks like I will be making quite a few of these BSJs in a row. Perhaps I'll finally be able to make a dent in my mammoth sock yarn stash!!! (I swear the yarn is multiplying when I'm not looking...)

For Halloween: I made the b.f. some socks in Duet Sock Yarn (colorway "Eye of Knute"). Toe up, afterthought heel in garter rib. Size 3 needles (woohoo!) Talk about a fast knit. Although there is only supposed to be enough yardage in the skeins up to Lady's Size 10, I had a good bit leftover after knitting these Men's Size 10.

Also, re: my last post, I would like to thank Weaver for letting me know that aromatherapy yarn does actually exist! I might just have to get some so I have a skein in my stash to sniff whenever I need the courage to frog :)