Pattern Spotlight: The Baby Surprise Jacket

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E_Zimmerman

EZ was sort of the original knitting blogger, so I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for her.  She published a quarterly knitting newsletter in the sixties that you could get delivered to your house for 25 cents.  (A deal, if you ask me.)  She has a ton of really clever patterns to her name, and they’re all written in an interesting “conversational” style, which I really enjoy (although I’ve heard some people complain about it).

In my opinion, her most interesting/clever/cool pattern is her “Baby Surprise Jacket” originally published in Fall of 1968 (though it’s been republished in many places now).  It’s a little garter-stitch baby cardigan knit all in one piece.  As you knit it up it looks like nothing more than a random pile of knitting.  But, when you bind off and execute a couple simple folds and sew in two short little seams (along the shoulders), you end up with an adorable little sweater.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis sweater is one of my favorite things to knit for my friends that are expecting.  Here’s why:

1.  It’s easy to adapt the pattern for either boys or girls, or for babies whose parents refuse to tell you if they are going to have a boy or a girl. (Jerks)

2.  I’ve probably made half a dozen of these sweaters, and I still get excited when I get to the final step and get to fold up the sweater.  It’s like magic.  Or origami.  Or magical origami.

3.  This pattern uses just about the same amount of yarn that a grown-up pair of socks uses, so one 100g skein of sock yarn will make an entire sweater.  And, depending on the brand of yarn, you might have a little extra to make a matching pair of bootees or a little stuffed animal or something.  AND, this pattern looks really cool when you use self-striping sock yarn.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo, go get yourself a copy of this pattern and make a bunch of baby sweaters.  (Even if you don’t have any babies/preggo ladies in your life, it’s a fun pattern to try just for the heck of it.)

Inspiration: It’s hot as balls

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I don’t know about you, but it’s hot as bejesus out here in Seattle.  (And I don’t mean “it’s hot for Seattlites who are used to putting on shorts when it breaks 50 degrees.”)  It’s actually in the 90s, and there’s no air conditioning anywhere within the surrounding 50 miles.  It’s kind of hellish.  There’s been a run on window air conditioners and fans:

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So, while we’re all sitting around stewing in our own sweat, why not knit a totally useful (and useable) swimsuit!

You could go oldschool with:

The Call of the Sea, by Susan Crawford

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You could go scantily-clad with:

BVI Bikini by Joanne Yordanou

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Or, you could go actually functional with this cute cover-up:

Balos by Laura Birek

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And, word to the wise (although I’m sure you know this already because you are reasonable people…I assume), don’t actually go swimming with a knit swimsuit.  It would only go all soggy and droopy the moment you stepped into the water.  Gross.

Inspiration: Subway

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As you guys know, I watch a stupid amount of TV.  And with great amounts of TV comes great numbers of commercials.  (I think Spiderman said that… right?)  Here’s a silly commercial that they’ve been showing for Subway, which apparently has avocados now (or at least I think that’s what they’re saying).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDB5H1GSjUM

Want to show your love of avocados?  Try one of these patterns:

Avocado Fruit, by Melbangel

avocado fruit

Avocado Dish Cloth, by Carly Zimmermanavocado dish cloth

Do you want to be my friend?

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Since I’ve started this blog, I’m really curious to see who would be interested in reading my ramblings on all things yarn.   And since we’ve (I’ve) been talking about Ravelry all week, let’s meet up online.

This is just a bit of shameless self-promotion, but I’d love it if you would become my Ravelry friend!

My screen name is onemilljellybeans.  If you click here, you’ll be taken to my page where you can befriend me and say howdy.

Or, you can “Favorite” my designer page by clicking here.  And, you can see all my original designs (so far… I have more coming up soon that I will be adding to both the blog and my pattern page).

See you soon!

The Search for the Perfect Pattern

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My absolute favorite part of Ravelry is its searchable pattern database.  It’s super useful.

Imagine, if you will, that you want to knit a small stuffed animal bird.  You don’t want to pay for a pattern, and you also don’t want to have to sew any seams.  That’s a lot of things to have to search for, if you’re just Googleing for it.  Instead, let’s see what we can find using Ravelry’s advanced search tool.

Open up Ravelry, click on Patterns, then click on the “pattern browser & advanced search” button.  (Ravelry was designed by knitters, not by web designers, which is kind of obvious by its semi-terrible user interface.)

Patterns 1

This brings us to a page of ALL of the patterns currently on Ravelry.  If you really wanted to, you could just go page by page and see everything.  Sometimes it’s fun to browse the patterns, but today we’re on a mission.  We’re going to use the search bar and filters to narrow down the patterns that are available to us.  Take some time to see what filters there are available.  Some of the filters are obvious: knitting vs. crochet, free vs. paid, type of item that the pattern is for (sweaters, soft toys, tablecloths, etc.).  Some of the filters are super specific: design elements (lace, ribbing, etc.), construction details (top down, short row shaping, etc.).  Poke around and see what they’ve got.Patterns 2

Every time you click on a filter, you’ll notice that the patterns start to match your selections.  We wanted to knit a bird stuffed animal with no seams, and we wanted the pattern for free, so I clicked on the following filters:

-Free

-Knitting

-Seamless

-Softies

and I put the word “bird” in the search bar, since there isn’t a filter for “Bird.”

Look at all those seamless, free bird patterns!

Patterns 3

When you find one you like, you can click on the picture, and you’ll bring up the pattern page.  From there, you’ve got some options.  Ravelry will link you to where you can find the pattern (in the middle of the page).  Or you can save the pattern in your “Favorites” or your “Queue.”  OR, you could “Cast On” and start a project page for yourself right away.

Patterns 4

I hope this makes your pattern-finding quests a little easier!  Poke around the site and see what you can find.  What else do you use Ravelry for?

Ravelry 101

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ravelry login screenIf you’re into knitting and have been near a computer for more than a hot minute, you’ve probably heard about Ravelry.  It’s sort of a Facebook for knitters.  But it’s sooo much more useful than that (Facebook is kind of dumb… don’t shoot me).

Ravelry is free to sign up for, and they don’t send spam or anything.  If you’re even vaguely interested in knitting or crocheting, you should sign up for an account.

There are about a million things that you can do with Ravelry, but I use it mainly for a couple things:

  1. Keeping track of finished projects.  If you’re anything like me, half of what you make goes to friends and family across the country and you never see it again.  Taking pictures of your finished and uploading them to Ravelry gives you a nice trip down memory lane and a great sense of accomplishment.  Also, filling out the yarn/needles/size info can be helpful if you ever want to make a project again.
  2. Talking to other knitters.  This is especially useful if you’re in a small town without a big knitting community, or if you’re teaching yourself by watching YouTube videos (and reading my blog!).  Have a problem with a pattern?  Questions about learning to spin?  Wrestling with a particularly nasty cable pattern?  Post your questions to one of the groups, and people will totally help you out.  Or, you can use the Ravelry groups as a way to totally geek out about whatever it is that you geek out about.  Is it Doctor Who or Harry Potter?  Maybe you’re really into gardening?  Or stock car racing?  There is a group for you.
  3. Finding new patterns.  Ravelry has the biggest searchable database of patterns.  You can sort by almost anything you want.  Want a women’s drop shoulder cardigan on size 3 needles with cables?  You can totally search for that.  Looking for a toy squirrel that uses short row shaping?  You can find that too.  (I’ll show you more about searching on Ravelry on Wednesday.)

So, my point is.  Ravelry:  try it.  It’s a great resource.  You don’t have to use everything, but I guarantee that there is something that it does that you would appreciate.

(FYI,  Ravelry didn’t pay me for this review.  But if they wanted to send me some yarn or something, I would totally be ok with that.)

Yikes! Stripes!

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve still got socks on the brain.  They are possibly my favorite project to work on when I’m looking for something easy, portable and fun.  But, sometimes having a million plain socks gets boring, so sometimes I mix it up, and use self-striping sock yarn.  Lots of brands carry self-striping sock yarn, and when you buy it, it just looks like regular variegated sock yarn (except that the label will have the word “stripe” on it…duh):

But, when you knit your socks, you magically end up with beautifully striped socks with absolutely no effort on your part!

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Pretty awesome, right?

So, how do they do it?  Basically the yarn company figures out how much yarn the average knitter uses for every row when she makes her socks.  Then, they dye the yarn in row-long increments, so that each row is a different color.  So, for example, if it takes 1 yard of yarn to knit 1 row, they might dye the yarn sow that 5 yards are blue, then 5 yards are green.  This means that in the finished sock, you will end up with a 5 row stripe of blue followed by a 5 row stripe of green.  Pretty clever!

Socks II: The Resockening

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I just realized that I hadn’t made an official pattern of my Sock Week  Month Tutorial.  Here it is, in a nice .pdf format for your printing pleasure.  I also have the pattern saved in my “Pattern Library” page along with all the other patterns I’ve posted here.  And, you can see all my patterns on Ravelry.

Socks by the Numbers

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Reader’s Choice

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uncle-sam

I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’d love to hear from you, my readers (assuming that you’re out there).  So far, I’ve pretty much been writing about whatever strikes my fancy, without much planning.  So, I have questions:

What would you like to see more of?  What would you like to see less of?  Do you have any burning questions?  Is there a pattern that you need help with? Is there anything you want to know about me? (Or, preferably, my knitting?  I’m not a huge over-sharer.)  Have you heard about some cool new technique or fiber that you would like to hear more about?  Is there something knitting-related (or totally unrelated) that you’d like my input on?  Do you have an idea for an Inspiration post?

I have some pretty cool stuff on deck (ie.  in my brain.  I just haven’t written the posts yet).  But, let me know if I’m missing something!  I’m here to serve!

Contact me through the comments section, or you can email me at knittingontheneedles@gmail.com, if you want to be all secret-like.

Inspiration: Bob’s Burgers

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So, Netflix pretty much thinks I’m a family consisting of:

1. A 60 year old woman (documentaries-Jiro Dreams of Sushi is fantastic)

2. A guy in his 20s (sci-fi movies-anything Star Trek–related is great)

3. A 17 year old girl (romantic period dramas-Um, Pride and Prejudice?  Obviously.)

4. A middle-aged man (procedural cop dramas-Any show that has “Law and Order” in the title is good by me.  Also, I just discovered there is a “Law and Order: UK.” I think I know what I’m doing this weekend.)

5. A 12 year old boy (cartoons-It’s kind of embarrassing, but Adventure Time is actually really good.)

My “Recommended” queue is always a little multiple-personality-ish.

One show that appeals to the most of my personalities is a really hilarious cartoon called “Bob’s Burgers.”  I think it airs on Fox, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, the second season just showed up on Netflix about a month ago, and I couldn’t recommend it more.  It’s a family-sitcom-type cartoon (like the Simpsons when they were good), about a family that runs a burger joint.  They get into shenanigans, and are generally hilarious.  It’s a really smart show, with really great writing.

But the most important part about “Bob’s Burgers” is the character of Mr. Frond (the kids’ guidance councilor) is a knitter!  Here he’s making a pink scarf.  (He even has a yarn bowl!)

Mr Frond 1

He runs into Linda (the kids’ mom) at the art store, buying yarn:

Mr Frond 3

And best of all, he has this fantastic sweater:

Mr Frond 2

Be like Mr. Frond and make yourself an awesome sweater.  You could use this pattern, a really simple stockinet turtleneck sweater.  You could then add on the words with a duplicate stitch or a really careful fair isle.

Knittaz 4 Life!