Friday, January 18, 2008

Baby Surprise Jacket Help - Decrease section

Well, I'm impressed. My mom, who is the queen of free form garter knitting, is following a pattern. She's decided to tackle EZ's Surprise Jacket.

Of course she's hitting problems. It's a simple pattern, but isn't written very clearly for the novice knitter.
So I made a chart for mom to help her keep track of stitch count.
This is only for the decrease part of the pattern. I'm sure as she progresses, I'll post other helpful hints.

Stitch count chart:
Click here for corrected chart (you can print it out easier from here, too).

Click here for a pdf of the same file. Some people have had difficulty with Google Docs.
Also, she was really confused about what to do on the increase row. Here are rows 9 through 13 written out.


Row 9: K30, sl1, k2tog, psso, k78, sl1, k2tog, psso, k30 (140 st)

Row 11: (K3, M1) x 9, K1, sl1, k2tog, psso, move marker, k76, move marker, sl1, k2tog, psso, K1, (M1, K3) x9 (154 st)

Row 13: K37, sl1, k2tog, psso, k74, sl1, k2tog, psso, k37 (150 st)
(Corrected: Thanks Karen!)

keep going till you have:

Row 43: K22, sl1, k2tog, psso, k44, sl1, k2tog, psso, k22 (90 st)

Then you knit the 90 sts plain (no decreases, etc)

14 comments:

Liz G. said...

Thanks Shelly! This is GREAT! I've been wanting to tackle this little sweater - so I know it will come in handy!

Jenny said...

Wow. I cannot thank you enough for explaining this. Dawn Adcock's cheat sheet does not make it clear that on row 11 you are still sl1 k2tog psso. Thus, I had too many stitches the 2 times I attempted this row. Phew! I'm on row 13 and coasting!

Unknown said...

Tried to start this sweater forever ago and frogged 2 or 3 times.... sooo glad to have this help THANK YOU! I did finish it recently :)

P.S. Am sending MANY folks to your site - making many happay :)

Anonymous said...

I was questioning myself when I got to Row 11, not really sure if I should or shouldn't, so I "googled" for help and found your post! Thanks so much, this makes perfect sense to me now.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for posting this!!! I ripped out the first 11 rows at least 20 times, trying to figure it out... Finally when i was going to give up, I found your blog :) now I am rockin and rolling on this BSJ... Dawn Adcock cheat sheet is the worst I have ever seen.. You should really consider making cheat sheets and selling them... Thanks again

BF said...

Another big thank-you from someone stuck on Row 11. I knew I had the stitch count right, couldn't figure out why it wasn't working - and I have both the Knitter's Workshop and the Adcock notes. I will print out your row count list, so thank you so much again!

I know EZ is the queen of knitting, but why the heck does her pattern-writing have to be so confusing?!

Dr. aWoW said...

I love this chart, you rock! I am making sure all my friends have this one, and not the Adcock one, which seems to be the official one for whatever dumb reason!

Dr. aWoW said...

Okay, all done - your chart is perfect and I barely looked at the pattern! I'll put a picture up soon. Thanks again for the awesome help, I really wouldn't have been able to get through the pattern without this chart.

lbruckmann said...

Yay! Not one of those stuck on row 11 - my problem was the meaning of "after 22 decr. (90 sts), work 3 rows even...." Argggg.... did she mean 22 ridges, hence 22 decrease rows? Or 11 decreases, hence down 22 sts? Or go all the way to 90 sts total? All of these being different and incompatible, I was waaaay confused.

Thanks for the return of clarity! :)

nursing and knitting -
-Lara

Allison said...

Thank you so much! I've just started this pattern and even though I've been knitting for years I find it WAY less than clear. This is very, very helpful.

melissab said...

i so appreciate this!! thanks for your help:)

willma said...

Muchas gracias, es lo que necesitaba!

Anonymous said...

Your instructions and chart are wonderful. Thank you!
I'm knitting my first BSJ and am now at rows 81/82.
I see that I knit the middle 90 stitches only. Do I put the first 33 on a stitch holder?

licata519 said...

Thank you. I've made the jacket three times, and still get confused at the decrease 22 times. Each side? Double decrease? Ridges? I googled until I got to your blog. Thanks.