My First BSJ

That actually sounds kinda dirty! My first Baby Surprise Jacket, that is.

I have been looking for something worthy to make from this yarn, which I spun a while ago, and really loved for all the colors it has in it:



I also wanted to make a Baby Surprise Jacket for the longest time, but always had another project in line first. Suddenly I put the two ideas together and the result was this:



It was surprisingly fast to knit. It only took me a week! My only disappointment about it is that the fabric melds all the colors together so much that they kind of end up looking a bit muddy. Here is a closeup of the sleeve, where you can still make out some of the lovely colors of the yarn:


(click to enlarge, as always)

After finishing (I see why people love this pattern - you only have two seams to sew and about four ends to weave in) I confronted the issue of buttons. Based on the pic showing where I had my grandmother's curler pins that she, and my mom, and I have all in turn used to pin together knitted items (they really help when you are getting ready to join edges), you can see that pink buttons would actually have been really cool. But when I raided my button stash I had no pink. I found other options, though. I really liked these yellow beads, which could have done service as buttons quite nicely.



They almost work. Ultimately, though, I felt they were a little outré and there isn't enough yellow in the yarn to be called out by the beads. I also found a big handful of mother of pearl buttons in my stash, and I actually liked their reverse side a great deal in this context. So here is the finished button placket!



Now I think I need to put my mind, finally, to designing the replacement for the orange sweater from college that I wore to pieces. I've put it off long enough (out of fear that it won't be perfect) and it's time!