The Skeptics Win the First Round

So the Baby Surprise Jacket (begun here) didn’t turn out to be a pleasant surprise. But the “blob” is completed.

And though it doesn’t end up a usable jacket, the jacket potential is there.

I knew knitting when I couldn’t make gauge was risky. The pattern hadn’t indicated a row gauge, so I didn’t know if it would turn out proportionally larger. One way to see is to try.

And I was not surprised to see the sleeves end up different lengths. Early on I could see a possible problem: I was decreasing stitches in the left sleeve but the second decrease came in the area before the right sleeve. I looked for errata, but didn’t find any. I looked at posts on Ravelry but that issue wasn’t mentioned.

I reread the directions but couldn’t see any way to read it other than the way I had.

Pictures of finished jackets show short sleeves, so the left one is closer to correct. But it is too small at the shoulder. And the left front corner was nowhere near correct. So simply changing where I did the right decrease wasn’t going to solve it.

EZ’s directions are cryptic. Meg Swenson’s elaborations are also cryptic. There may be another book where they get clarified.

So next move is to buy the right size yarn and to explore other EZ books. But that won’t be this summer because the goal for this year is using up yarn scraps, not buying new yarn. So don’t hold your breath.

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