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D'oh!

A kind reader sent me an offline message yesterday regarding the yarn-yardage required for my Adult Surprise Jacket. I merrily replied that I had 20 balls of Noro Kureyon, and surely that was enough to knit anything! I believe I may even have added a LOL to that wanton act of knitting hubris. Well. The question remained with me, especially since (after acquiring the 40" US size 7 circular) it appeared most probable that I had knit an inch and used an entire ball of the Kureyon, or ~109 yd/100 m. (The upside, of course, is that it looks pretty cool!)

I consulted this, and thought about my yarn requirements. I consulted the nice Yahoo group of knitters that have already knit the Adult surprise. Finally, I dug out the Fall 2000 Knitter's that contained the Adult Surprise Revisted. Yep. There it was in hideous black and white—yarn requirements of 34 balls of Karabella Aurora 8 (96 yd/87 m) for the same size I'm making, which is oversized-jacket-sized. Eeep! and D'oh! I'm 14 skeins short of the Kureyon! I must have been asleep at the needles when I blithely cast on for this without checking yardage, but gee! 2100 yd seemed like plenty. Knit and learn, right? But it was a major D'oh! moment, with much slapping of my own forehead.

D'oh!!

I have 20 balls of color 57, too, so Friday I'm hunting around for the additional skeins I need, and I'll go with either color 71 or 57. Wish me luck! I believe that neither of these colors is discontinued (but I've been wrong before).

Pups

Della and Dyna went to class last night prepared for their Level II testing, but instead it was just a regular class, with the testing promised for next week. Della loathes the new big dogs in her class, and gave a very good demonstration of passive resistance by refusing to do anything except turn her back on the class with dachshund-disdain. Dyna romps with the big dogs; she wants to be friends with everyone and is completely fearless. When the cooperative pups were all doing chutes? And Della was persuaded to try? She went flying in, and then refused to come out. For what seemed like about a half-hour. I hope we don't have a(nother) puppy-school dropout on our hands.

Friday! Geoffrey says Be Cool—Stay in School. The pups say More Belly Rubs, Less Chat. I say Happy Friday to all, and to all a good weekend.

Chances Are

Even though we have this filled with knitting needles in practically every size you could imagine, especially at the smaller end of the mm range,

what are the chances we would only have a single US size 7, 24-in long? We can't tell if our 400-st Surprise Jacket is working out in Kureyon no. 71, because we can scarcely see what we are doing as we push stitches aside and around and around.

I *think* it's going to be extremely awesome (how could it not be?), but I won't be able to sing about it for sure until I get a longer needle Thursday afternoon. I pick up my nephew on Thursdays, and his school is located exactly two blocks from the local—is that lucky or what?

Flora

Oh right! Flora! A note from my blog-buddy Kaori reminded me that the vest had not made a completely finished appearance on the blogola. I've linked a Flora page from the sidebar under Finished Stuff. It is a pretty vest, but much too hot and muggy here for a modeling session (and it's only the end of April—yikes!). You can look at this image:

Or go look at the Official Photos on the Flora page. Knit-blog readers' choice.

Pups

The pups love Thursday because that's when their excellent boy Geoffrey (my nephew) comes over, and he is an enthusiastic giver of pup belly-rubs and ear-scritches.

We hope you have an equally enthusiastic and affectionate person on your radar screen today. The pups, with their eclectic musical sensibilities, quote Janis Joplin, and say Get It While You Can.

Cheers, and happy knitting!

So Far So Good So Cast On

While most of my evening was taken up with a pesky OS upgrade, then installing new drivers, and hunting for software, etc., I still made time to cast on for the Adult Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I'm planning to make this leisurely project-knitting, just enjoying the colors unfurling upon the mysterious design.

My jacket is being knit in Noro Kureyon, color no. 71. (Terri's clever idea.)

It's a heady mustardy-mossy-foresty-fuschia-magenta explosion of colors, and I think I'll like it very much. Plus, no purling! All knitting, all the time! Did you know there was an online group devoted to knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann designs? They've knit the Baby Surprise, the Adult Surprise, Ribwarmers, a shawl, hats and other items, and they're a very friendly and enthusiastic group. I'm primarily a lurker, but I love to listen to the chatter about EZ designs by knitters who are so prolific and pleasant. Blogdogblog awards them Snaps and Woofs!

A Little Wistful

As knitblog-fever builds for MDSW, I find I feel quite dis-located at different times during the course of a day; it seems so far away, when it was just a three hour drive before. Of course my dear guild knit-buds in NJ would let me crash-knit with them, but the Festival simply isn't in the cards for me this Spring. Still, I feel displaced, or something. It's a curious feeling. Oh well. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that Rhinebeck will be my festival in 2004. Virginia, be looking for me in October, okay? The rest of you, I hope, are sharpening your credit cards and packing your comfy shoes and sunscreen. Pet some sheep for me!

Pups

Della is still making faces, but Mikey is always a happy hound. He's feeling particularly fluffy this week.

We wish you a fluffy sunny happy day with time to knit something wonderful. Happy Wednesday!

Someone to Swatch Over Me

Monday night was not our most prolific night of knitting ever; in fact, we only swatched. Swatches! I dislike knitting them, but rarely proceed without one. And now I'm ready to begin to knit my Adult Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann per Terri's clever idea, in Noro Kureyon at 5 st per inch on US size 7s.

And, I'm swatched and ready with Rowan's Yorkshire Tweed 4ply at 7 st per in on US size 3s for my Knitted-Stitch Pullover by Meg Swansen. It's practically a Wool Gathering festival around here! By the way, you can see a photo of the Knitted-Stitch Pullover by scrolling down a bit on the Wool Gathering page link in the previous sentence. The pullover (I'm thinking of making it a cardigan) features a knitter's joke: the charted pattern is actually composed of stylized knit and purl stitches. I love it! I couldn't find a photo of the Adult Surprise Jacket online, so just see yesterday's entry and imagine it bigger and in Kureyon :-)

Swatch. Etymology: origin unknown. Where do you suppose this word came from? I don't know, nor does Merriam-Webster. But my swatches are done and now all that's left is to decide if I want to knit both projects at the same time, or work dutifully on one and finish it, then work on the other. Tough choice, right? Thinkthinkthink. I also have a heap of plastic grocery bags that I want to turn into Amber's coinpurses. For the record, I did make an attempt to get back to work on the Morning Glory Vest, but apparently I'm still not ready to return to it.

Pups

Della seems determined this week to not allow any pretty pup pictures except on her terms, and she hasn't clued me in to what those terms are yet. I imagine they will involve peanutbutter.

Tuesday! Della says something unfathomable but I suspect PG-17. Please enjoy your day, and your knitting. Don't look at Della, she's misbehaving.

"Hey presto eureka"*

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket (Special Spun Out 1 - B) is the most fun I've had knitting since my mania over Scribble Lace. This design, first published in 1968, is pure genius. I enjoyed the knitting very much, and I never picked it up without thinking about the mysterious construction, and how astonishing I found it that anyone could conceive of such a clever all-in-one-piece bit of knitting. I knit the Baby Surprise to understand the construction; I'm planning an Adult Surprise (Spun Out 1) for myself. But I can see how knitting these little jackets might prove as addictive as knitting socks or gloves.

Here's the knitting finished, with Little Jack thoughtfully providing some scale for you:

After shooing Jack out of the way:

After folding A to A and B to B:

Isn't that cunning? And very cute.

Cute shaped neckline:

I used Plymouth Yarn's Le Fibre Nobili "Opera" in two different marled shades, and a US size 6 bamboo circular needle. Smart. Cute. Fun. Useful. What a lot is packed into this little jacket! Two thumbs up for a classic.

* "Hey presto eureka and lo—a baby sweater!" E. Zimmermann, writing in Wool Gathering, Schoolhouse Press, 1968.

Unexpected Vest Weather

According to TWC, it's going to be cool enough to wear my 1993 Flora vest to work— possibly as cool as 58 degrees (F)! It will be 80 plus degrees by noon, so it will be a short outing for the vest, but I *will* get to wear it in the morning, and that's a happy surprise. So I'm glad I finished the armbands over the weekend. I went with the corrugated ribbing, as in the original from A Scottish Garland; the leaves would have been very pretty, but after thinking about it, I decided that I wanted to stay with the design as originally conceived by A. Starmore.

Pups

It was rainy off and on all through the weekend; the pups were vexed.

Monday. Della says We Are Not Amused.

We hope you have something amusing to think about today. Happy Knitting!