Baby Surprise Jacket on DVD and new Wool!

Schoolhouse Press has a new DVD out this Spring and a new wool!

From the website:

What …? A new wool for Schoolhouse Press? And, you say, it’s SOFT? I know; we are super conservative about adding new wool. Once chosen, we have remained loyal until the mill folded (Cambridge and Condon’s), or discontinued the line (Suomi and Highland). This time it is half wool, half alpaca. I used it to knit EZ’s Baby Surprise Jacketon the new DVD. It is a seductive fiber with which to knit and is available in deep, rich shades.

One of the most unique & ingenius of all of [tag]Elizabeth Zimmermann[/tag]’s designs, the BSJ was introduced in 1968, and has grown in popularity ever since.
The mystery of the jacket unravels as Meg takes you step by step through the jacket construction, including:long tail cast on, double decreasing / increasing, adding colors, baby buttonholes, casting off in purl, sewing a seam/darning in ends.

The DVD is a must have and priced at only $18. The wool colors are just beautiful!

Specifically for knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get the latest knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next in our online community.

Looking for more Baby Knitting patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

Next Pattern:

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

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