Doll-Baby Surprise Jacket

 I finally stopped spinning my wheels long enough to try out the concept of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. Ravelry had a pattern for a doll's size version which allowed me to knit one up in a hour or two and see how it came together, solving the big mystery for me. Isn't it cute?

Now what shall I do with this knowledge? The adult version is intriguing but since this is knit all in one piece, it ends up being a lot of stitches all at once on the needles, which loses its appeal to me. The thing I do like is that there is a chance that no thinking is required to have matching stripes all the way through. I love the no thinking/planning aspect and the using up of lots of scrap yarn in the construction.

See how much sweater there is? I grabbed these pictures and the following ones from the Ravelry site. I am not so happy with horizontal stripes across the vast territory of  the butt.



On the other hand I love how the front looks and yet have complaints about the sleeves and the way they come together. Is there no pleasing me? Why can't I be like the hundreds of knitters of this cardigan who rave about how much they loved making it?

I could go this route and just eliminate the sleeves entirely and get the striped effect. I think this knitter had luck enter into her knitting, just a bit.

I do believe that Guru1 on Ravelry has the perfect near-version.

She writes::I never do a pattern exactly as written - just ask anyone! For instance, on the bottom half of this sweater, instead of doing one back and two front pieces, I chose to do two side pieces. Same basic results but I like the placement of the miters better.
I also chose a lighter weight yarn than called for so that I could follow the instructions for the larger size and end up with 3/4 length sleeves without measuring much.

I love her attitude, so much like mine!
This one has the top down raglan shoulders which I love and can easily fake from a standard pattern in my library. The bottom half can be made in two pieces like she did, which can be picked up not sewn, and if I am careful, I can match the stripes by counting rows.
This may require a teeny bit of thinking, which is all I am up for these days.
Don't hold your breath waiting for a finished project anytime soon. I am still in the deciding stages.