Baby Surprise Jacket - The Beginning

Now that we know the Bean is a Boy Bean, I started a Baby Surprise Jacket with some handsome Opal Sock yarn (Dream Catcher 1231). If you check out the picture, here , you will see the colors have nice, wide repeats.

I thought this might be good for a BSJ, and I'm pleased with the way it looks so far. The colors have long enough repeats so there is a pleasing stripey pattern, not a jumble of colors.

I was afraid that a sock yarn BSJ would be very small, and my gauge with #4s confirmed that. Without any changes in EZ's pattern, the BSJ would be 14 or 15" in the chest. It would fit a newborn and only for a short time. I studied the pattern, and made some calculations. I think I figured it out, and have cast on 194 sts, which should be an 18" chest. I hope it will fit in the fall, at about 6 mos old, and be a warm, lightweight sweater through next winter. The only problem with making a larger BSJ is I have only 1 skein of this color, and I may not be able to make a matching hat or socks. We'll see.

I have knitted 11 ridges, at 26 ridges I will be at the center of the sweater, and begin increasing for the body sides and back. Just for reference, the cuff of the sweater is from the beginning of a row to the decreasing diagonal line. The back neck and sleeve lengths (wingspan) is from one diagonal point to the other diagonal point. The only seam in the whole sweater is on the top of the sleeves.