Almost exactly one year ago, Jess and I started batting around the idea of an Elizabeth Zimmermann knitalong. We launched it and cast on for our projects. Today, Zimmermania is more than 500 members strong; new recruits rally to the banner every day. (Email me if you’d like to be among them. The banner is purely figurative, but if we actually had one it would read I AM THE BOSS OF MY KNITTING.) My own little EZ odyssey has brought versions of the Fishtrap Aran, the Rorschach Jacket, and two Baby Surprise Jackets into the world, and now I’ve added a February sweater to the ranks.

Specs:

Sweater from “Some Babies’ Things,” February chapter of Knitter’s Almanac

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy Sock, colorway “In Vino Veritas”, well under 1 skein

Needles: US #4

Modifications: Because I was using a sock yarn, I cast on 57 sts to begin. Out of sheer laziness, not wanting to strain myself with too much math calculating how to adjust the garter yoke increases to suit, I opted to knit the yoke in stockinet and work raglan increases. I allowed too many stitches for the shoulder portions and ended up with enormous kimono sleeves, but they still look cute. And maybe it will be easier to stuff the wee recipient’s absurdly fragile little arms through. (I don’t know if mums and dads actually worry about this after the first few days of putting their new sprogs through more costume changes than a troupe of variety show actors, but I know that when my turn comes I’m going to be petrified that I’ll damage the tender little morsels trying to get them dressed. My babies may have to wear handknit togas until I’m convinced they’re sturdy enough to be manhandled into sweaters.)

But enough about that. Let’s see some cute buttons:

Aren’t they girly? Of course, flowers aren’t just for girls, no matter what faces Mr. Garter might make to the contrary:

(And yes, when you work on your own start-up you can toil in the hammock in the shade of the lilac tree. Of course, you’re in the hammock working on a national holiday when the rest of us are enjoying time to potter about the house assembling Ikea bookshelves, sewing buttons, blocking hats, and blogging about it all. But it’s no cause to make impolite gestures.)

There, that’s better:

I think the Japanese anemone nicely sets off his manly scruff, don’t you? (The self-employed don’t have to shave if they don’t feel like it, either.)

We’ll close with one last pretty flower picture:

Summer’s almost over. Let’s squeeze out every last drop.

So, baby things. I started rummaging through the stash, trying to make decisions about what to cast on for the neighbors’ September sproglet. We know he’s coming with boy parts, and since the EZ February sweater with the gull pattern is a little on the lacy and feminine side, I’ve been thinking about substituting another pattern for the body. (Gull stitch is only a suggestion from EZ in the pattern; most folks have taken it as gospel and there’s nothing wrong with that. Check out the umpteen darling iterations on Zimmermania.) There are a couple of good candidates in the stash for this; the frontrunner is some Fly-Dyed Monarch Fly Super Sport Monarch (my vote for most redundant yarn name ever, but tasty stuff) in a handsome dark teal color. I’ve also been toying with the idea of knitting Wee Neighbor Lad a blanket. In the inheritance stash is an armful of venerable Reynolds Saucy cotton in a perfect little boy blue. When I investigated the sack o’ Saucy, I found this:

Behold, a sadly unfinished sweater back, adult woman size. Ah well, I thought, the style’s past its expiration date and I’m sure Mr. G’s mom has totally forgotten she ever knit it. I’ll rip it out if I run out of intact balls during the blanket knitting. (You may remember this is what I did for Mr. G’s Fishtrap Aran – I still have the better part of the back of its former incarnation lining a box the cat sleeps in.) But then I had a flash of inspiration – what if I folded it like this?

Sew the bottom together, insert a zipper up the middle from the hem rib to the arm holes, continue for a few more inches at the top with some shaping for a little hood, pick up sts in rib around the opening for his little face, and voila, a baby pod! It’s already 21″ long, which I understand to be about the length of your average newborn. And the pattern should be cute and quilty:

If this works out, I will feel insufferably clever.

It’s the year 2007, and I hope we’ve all apprehended by now that there’s more to girls than sugar & spice & everything nice. This realization is only just dawning on the baby garment industry, however. The choices for wee lassies still seem to be pink, pink, pink, pale yellow, pink, seafoam green, and – oh! – how ’bout some more pink? So what’s the liberated baby girl to add to her spring wardrobe?

Why, shit-kicking jungle-green camo booties, of course. These are for the daughter of the most esteemed gleek and KP. They’re not a secret, because Steph called dibs on the leftovers of this Koigu two summers ago when I bought it in order to finish the last toe of another pair of Koigu booties for baby Matthew in London. They were the first booties I made, and I ran out of the lovely blue-green partial skein just before the end. The chartreuse-and-parrot segments of this wild, rather toxic colorway were just what I needed for the job, and the rest of the skein has been marinating in the stash ever since.

These are my go-to booties, the Ruffle Rib Better-Than-Booties Baby Socks by Ann Budd that appeared in the Summer 2005 IK. They’re cute and perky and require the perfect yardage to make with the leftovers from socks. Twenty-five grams will do you. Let’s see them again, just for fun:

Oooo, so green and jungly. Quick to knit, too. I dashed these off in just a few hours this weekend. Now to make about five more pairs, because new babies seem to be the accessory this spring!

You all know how I revere EZ, but now I think about it there’s something off about the name of this pattern. Baby Surprise . . . it conjures up associations with ’50s cookbooks. You know, the American culinary era when vegetables were boiled until unrecognizable, everything contained Velveeta, cream of mushroom soup, and crumbled potato chips, and what was for dinner was entitled something like, well, Chicken Surprise.

But I digress. Whatever it’s called, this pattern is ingenious, and I finally buckled down to the finishing details and then popped it in the mail on Tuesday:

     

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Workshop

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport “Ravenwood”, about 1.3 skeins

Needles: US size 3

Finished size: Perhaps for a six-month-old baby? I’m terrible at guessing baby sizes, but I know it’s too big for a newborn.

Modifications: Only the addition of the simple crochet around the edges. I thought the variegated yarn wanted visual pulling together. And I had some scraps of Dale Baby Ull in an appropriate red left over from my Sockapaloooza socks.
Overall, I’m delighted by this little sweater. The construction is so clever and unusual. I was guessing at the pithy directions a couple of times, but I guessed correctly and all turned out well.

Now it’s off to pack my rain gear for an afternoon of cyclocross spectating. Mr. Garter is racing this morning, but I’m not with him because it’s the last day of plant dyeing class. He’s going to pick me up afterward and take me back out to the course so we can watch the top men’s race, though. My own physical activity for the day will be cycling down to Sellwood for class, since Mr. Garter took the car. Cross your fingers Mr. Rochester and I don’t get too wet on the way. (Mr. Rochester is my back-up commuter bike. He’s not as cute as Domitilla, but he’s strong, manly, a little rough around the edges, and clearly has a salacious past. There are stickers of anime babes and a woman licking the crossbar right between my thighs as I pedal along. It makes me feel a little dirty if I think about it too much.) Okay, off I run.