BSJ - c.1968 and still surprises!

Today, new toys, BSJ nearly there, a visual guide to folding her up, and that was indeed a surprise, Frog report, fish afghan storage and lack of progress, and all go for the merino silk Fana cardigan.


Baby surprise jacket- BSJ - is still on the needles, and I'm in knitting heaven. A set of Knitpics Options arrived just after the last post - and they are sublime. Smooth, sharp, slippery, light, no kinks, I can't imagine any way they could be better. So how did a knitter so far from the US score a set?


Well I pulled favours from Bear, who works in engineering roading design, for a firm who 'does' contract design and planning for housing subdivisions in California. Usually that would mean a trip to Norco once a year, but none are on the horizon, so he asked a collegue 'over there' to act as a shipping agent.



Only thing was we forgot to specify shipping method, and they decided to ship air mail, amazing - 2 days there to here. Costwise - eeekkk. Lets just not talk about the pros/cons and knitting tool air mile controversy. I'm brown bagging lunches for a wee while yet till finances recover. You can now buy Knit pics from Australia, but only the delux kit, and strangely that works out about the same $.



I switched BSJ over to the knitpics and seemed to wizz along - those tips really let you dig into a K3 tog, and avoid doing a 's1k2tog pass slip stitch over'. I always seem to stretch out the slipped stitch, so the k3 tog gives a better finish.
In fact I wizzed so fast, and was intially so confused about the shaping that I missed an increase 10 row and had to frog back around a third of the jacket. Not big deal, it made me understand the importance of the shaping more.

She is nearly finished, I think yarn projects are like ships, nearly always she's. And this is how she folds and flips to make a cute as a button garter stitched sripped baby jacket. That Elizabeth Zimmerman was one clever lady.



I've got two more ridges then a row of button holes, and three more ridges and cast off and done. I want to make another, and another, and another - bring on some babies.


Fish - well they are in safe hibernation, here in my left over yarn drawer. After BSJ is complete I will complete the remaining 13 fish and start stitching. Not entirely sure if an edge is needed, depends on the finished size. I now plan to edge it with more fish only if it is to small to do anything useful with, current thinking is a baby car seat blanket.

And I swatched a practice for a Fana cardigan in the Dawn merino silk, execpt for real she will be navy and red, not grey. I know corrugated rib is not traditional, but I am liking that bit voth the doing and the result. There are some stars still to do, and the swatch needs washing to check the relaxed guage, but over all pretty good, a nice weight, and feel to the yarn. On 2.5mm in the round it goes pretty fast, and has a nice feel. Fana cardigans are knit in the round steeked and the edges finished with a band of woven fabric, I'll have to do a hunt but am wondering about using a fine merino machine knit, like tee shirting or slightly heavier to give this one a more modern feel? Comments? All dependent on finding the perfect colour match - or am I game to try dying wool fabric? I wonder ...