Surprise Sweater!

I have no idea, but I looked at what I could find about that pattern on the internet and had a stroke of genius -- I discovered that what it is is a basically a bog coat. I made a little paper bog coat and taped it together, then I cut the top sleeve and shoulder line open and ended up with exactly what that piece of knitting looks like before it's assembled. Pretty amazing, that. (I ordered the pattern.)

Great job....love the colors!

Donna

Very cute, Joan! I love the colors!

lisa

Welcome, Joan. Great job on the sweater. I remember my first one - for the entire time I was knitting it, I thought that someone was playing a cruel joke on me.

Higs, Katherine

I love the colours! I had never seen a sweater like that before. Is there a URL where the pattern is, please?

*hugs* Gem>> and I couldn't be happier! Now I wonder if it will fit? This weight

Hi Gemini,

This is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. It can be found in her Knitting Workshop book:

imagine it's probably available at a local library.Or you can buy just that particular pattern if you like:

I imagine it's probably available at a local library.>> Or you can buy just that particular pattern if you like:> > VP

Hi VP,

Thank you for the urls. I will look into it a bit further. However, I just finished snooping around the internet and found pictures of the Surprise Sweater on what looks like circular needles. If this is the only way it can be made, then I'm out of luck. I don't hold my needles the usual way. I hold the right one in the crease of my leg at my hip joint, and the left one firmly in my left hand. This lets circular knitting and knitting with double-pointed needles out of my grasp, otherwise things could get very messed up... not to mention painful with those double-pointed needles. LOL

Oh well... it is a cute sweater, and I'm sure someone else who *can* use circulars can use the information on where to find the pattern. It kind of reminds me of a sweater I knit years ago from a pattern I found in a magazine (Woman's Day, I think... or McCalls) that is done in one piece in stripes of different colours. You start at the bottom of the front (or back... your decision when it's finished), knit up to the sleeves where you cast on stitches for the sleeves, continue on up to the shoulders where you cast off so many stitches in the center for the neck then add them back on in the next row and continue with the same number of rows you just did for the rest of the sleeve, then you cast off the sleeves in the next row(s) and finish up the bottom part of the sweater. You're finished the sweater with only the side seams and underarms to sew... and you can make a belt to go with it if you want. It was *very* colourful... a little too colourful for my particular liking, but my best friend loved it... so it was hers! ;o)

Thank you again for the urls.

*hugs* Gemini

I'm trying to picture this. I think this may be similar to the way my dad knit. He had to sit on the floor, one needle upright held between his legs, the other held at right-angles in his hand. It worked for him (though he knit to prove he could rather than to produce anything) and your way works for you so that's all that counts.

:-)

VP

> I imagine it's probably available at a local library.>>>> Or you can buy just that particular pattern if you like:>> >>> VP

You could knit it on straight needles, it's just that there's a lot of stitches and they'd be smooshed up. It's knit back and forth, not in the round.

sue

Gem, I did my first one on straights. The stitches were a bit crowded together, so next time I used a curcular as though it were two straights, and that worked better.

Higs, Katherine

Oh is is? That's neat! And it wouldn't be my first time having a LOT of stitches on my straight needles. I did this with a large afghan I made when I was a teen. :o)

*hugs* Gemini

I don't think I hold my needles *quite* the same way your Dad did. ;o) My right needle is held in the front crease of my leg at the hip, and normally it leans to the left a bit toward the knitting I'm working on. The left needle though, is held straight across horizontally... so, yes, at right-angle. This subject came up a couple of years ago on here, and I think someone referred to my way of knitting as "crotch knitting", even though my needle is nowhere near my crotch. LOL

I used to be a bit embarrassed that I don't hold my needles the "normal" way and therefore wouldn't be caught knitting in public. However, I have recently decided that I am not going to allow myself to be embarrassed by much anymore... so last Monday while waiting for my van to pass the emissions test, I took my knitting out of my purse (HUGE purse, by the way) and did almost three rows on a baby afghan I am working on before being told my van was ready to go. I figure it anyone is going to ridicule me for the way I hold my knitting needles, then that person would be the one with the problem (of being rude) and not me! ;o)

*hugs* Gemini

Sounds good, Katherine... but with circulars there is nothing to brace against the crease of my leg for support the way I do with straight needles. If I decide to try this sweater, I will just get the longest needles I have and crowd the stitches on them. It wouldn't be my first time putting a lot of stitches on my needles. ;o)

*hugs* Gem