Extravayarnza

So, Wicked's over & I'm officially back.
Back to my shop, back to my blog, back to my life.
But let me tell you, I have a Wicked Hangover! (lol... that's to Sarah for that one)
I'm still a bit jet lagged from the long hours & lack of sleep. Luckily I went out for a celebratory drink with a few friends last night after the final show. This really helped me relax & unwind. Plus a bottle of Oberon really helped me sleep a good long time.

I needed a break from all the sock knitting that was happening during the show, so I knit a special little project over the weekend~

Isn't it so cute?!

I'm teaching a class on the Baby Surprise Jacket in August & thought I'd knit one more just so my students could get a better idea of sizing. Plus my other BSJ was in a solid color & the stripes show off the shaping so much better. (and it's so cute who could resist knitting one after another after another.... despite no babies to knit for)

I'm even quite thrilled with the buttons I found~

I love the elephant button.

You can get all the details over on Ravelry or I'll go over them again here:

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket (Spun Out leaflet 1B)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto (DK) 4 balls total, one in each color (purely by coincidence the color numbers are 5, 10, 15, and 20)
Needles: Addi Lace in size 5 (I think it was a 24" cable) I can't even put into words how much I love these needles. They are simply perfect.

My rules for color in this sweater:
A: Each stripe would be either 1, 3, or 5 ridges
B: I attempted to use the colors as evenly as possible, that rule kicked into effect big time when I realized that I really did need most of all 4 balls to finish the sweater
C: I also tried to keep the stripes asymmetrical yet achieve a balance to the sweater. I personally think I accomplished that quite well, but that's just my opinion.

Mods:
I used a crochet cast-on to create a tidy chain stitch edge.
I also slipped the first stitch on each row to continue that chain stitch edge.
On the decreases I used a Vertical Double Decrease & slipped the decrease stitch on wrong side rows so I have that nice little diagonal chain stitch
On increases I slipped the stitch between the M1s again to continue the chain stitch. (I didn't do that on the last 6 ridges after the part where you work only the center 90 stitches)
I sewed the arms together with slip stitch crochet. I spent a lot of time this morning trying about 6 or 7 different seams & was having trouble deciding on one. My final choice left me with a purple chain on the right side of the sweater. This kinda sandwiched in the multi color chain with 2 purple chains (cast-on and crochet chain). I like the effect.

So, pretty much all I did was add in chain stitch detailing to finish off the edges & to show off the shaping lines. Other than that I followed the tried and true pattern.

Oh, one last bit, my gauge was 4.5 sts/inch in garter stitch. That gave me a sweater that should fit a baby 6-9 months old.