Baby Surprise Jacket

When looking around for a good toddler sweater pattern, I came across the phenomenon known as the Baby Surprise Jacket or BSJ, as it is fondly known by the knitting masses. It was devised by knitting guru Elizabeth Zimmermann in 1968. She says, in her Knitting Workshop book where the pattern is published, that "it was designed on vacation and puzzles me to this day."

It is knit all in one piece, all in garter stitch, with a series of increases and then a series of decreases. Here it is after 53 or so rows. There are only 114 rows in the whole sweater.

While I was knitting, I was trying to figure out what was what. Where was the front? Was this the neck edge? Why, oh why, did my increases leave the holes you can see halfway up? Would I be able to fix them later?

Once it was off the needles, looking very much like a ray-type of sea creature, it was still pretty mystifying. However, the pattern called for the making of buttonholes on both fronts so that you can at least figure out where those parts of the sweater lie in the picture below. Elizabeth maintains that having two sets of buttonholes means that when the baby is born and you know the sex (remember, this was in the old days when the baby's gender was also a surprise), you can then sew on buttons on the correct side. In reality, I believe that she has you do two sets of buttonholes because you would never be able to tell the left front from the right during the knitting stage.

Now comes the surprise part. You fold a little here, sew up a small seam or two there, and surprise! You have made a sweater. You will note in the picture below that I was able to more or less diguise some of the accidental holes by some judicious sewing-up.

If you should decide to make the BSJ, you can first take a look at thousands of them (over 3000 to date), in all colors and yarn types on Flickr, right here.

You will help yourself immensely, once you have purchased the book and own the highly copyrighted pattern, by downloading and printing these Baby Surprise Jacket Notes by Dawn Adcock. There's potentially a lot of math and a lot of counting in this sweater, all made much easier if you keep Dawn's notes on a clipboard in front of you.

There is an extremely helpful Knit Wiki article containing photos with arrows (helpful with placement of stripes), lots of notes, some variations, and a little chart about gauge and size that will allow you some control over your finished product. The original one-size pattern is made for a baby; this chart will give you some guidance in case you are knitting for an older child.

I wanted my sweater to fit a toddler with a 22" chest, but thought it should be a little bit big so it would still fit by the time I sent it. I worked out the gauge, actually knitting several samples (highly unusual for me!). I ended up using size 10 needles, figuring if the sweater were a little too big, my granddaughter would grow into it. However, my finished sweater will probably fit her sister, who is in 3rd grade. Perhaps it was the cotton yarn I used--not much spring to it.

So, I am ready to try again, using smaller needles and more elastic yarn. It's a fascinating pattern and I can't wait to apply what I've learned so far. We'll see what happens.