Winners #21 and #22 plus beautiful buttons

I had an entire blog post typed up right here and ready to go. I hit PUBLISH and you guessed it. The dark demons of the internet swallowed it whole.

I'm too depressed to try again but promise to give it my best shot tomorrow.

But I will say congratulations to our winners

#20 - Cristina
#21 - Redhawkmom

And in case you're wondering why I'm posting another photo of the Baby Surprise Jacket, it's because the tiny pink heart-shaped buttons arrived today, I sewed them on, and I'm officially in love.

More about that tomorrow after I recover from this blogging tragedy.

Winner #14 and the BSJ

I'm delighted to announce that Teabird (also teabird at Ravelry) is winner #14. In the interest of full disclosure, Teabird was my favorite librarian when I lived on Long Island. This is what I love about the internet--how else would we have found ourselves back in contact again after twenty years?

Remember it's not too late to enter. Just send me an email with TWO in the subject header and I'll make sure you're in the running.

And now let me present my finished Baby Surprise Jacket. No buttons yet but other than that I'm finished and pretty happy with it. Yes, it's a circus-y, cotton candy kind of BSJ--not at all the crunchy granola BSJs I've seen. Acrylic, baby! Machine washable and dryable Lion Brand Baby Soft Print in Carousel for the body; Lion Brand BSP in bubble gum pink for one stripe and Stylecraft Wonderbaby in powder blue for the other. I used an Addi Turbo US5 lace needle (circ 32") and edged it with slip stitch crochet.

And now that I know what I'm doing and understand the pattern, I'm going to cast on and do it all over again in yellow and white Berroco Comfort.

What did I learn about knitting the BSJ?

1. Do not change colors during the 10 ridge/90 stitch section or you'll be pushing ends out of the way when you're trying to cleanly pick up stitches along the side.
2. Add stripe or two right after the initial 5 stitch increases on either side; that will give you lovely stripes right above the cuffs.
3. If you're using a busy yarn (which I definitely was) follow Meg Swansen's suggestion and use a coilless safety pin to mark the two neutral stitches. You'll be glad you did.
4. Get yourself a copy of Meg Swansen's Baby Surprise Jacket DVD. It made all the difference.

Highly recommended knitting experience.

Winner #11

Big congrats to Connie B (who can be found here), our winner #11!

Weird day. I wrote a lot and knitted a little this morning. I wrote a little and knitted a lot this afternoon. I am 1.5 ridges away from finishing the Baby Surprise Jacket. Then all I have to do is seam the shoulders, sew on the buttons (when they arrive), and do a slip stitch crochet edging. I'm debating a collar. What do you think?

Winner #8

And winner #8 is:

Crystal Broyles!

I have your snail mail address, Crystal. The package will ship in the morning.

More writing than knitting today. I managed an inch on the cursed BSJ and regretted starting it in stash yarn and not picking something more . . . subdued. But so be it. I'm also muttering a few choice words over EZ's challenging (how's that for a diplomatic word?) instructions. Her designs are revolutionary. Her conceptual skills border on genius. But why oh why did she think some of us are smarter knitters than we are?

If we're not supposed to count the neutral stitches, please tell me! If we are supposed to count them, please tell me that too. IT'S IMPORTANT!!!

Sorry. I had to get that off my chest.