Elizabeth Zimmerman’s 100th birthday was August 9. One of our expert knitters in the Nebraska Knit & Crochet Guild (NKCG) started a knit-a-long (KAL) of the “Baby Surprise Jacket” in honor of EZ’s birthday. I had never done this baby sweater pattern, so I joined in the KAL.
It turned into on of those obsession driven projects. You know the ones — where you become so intrigued by how the pattern is unfolding that you simply.cannot.put.it.down. Yup, your fingers just itch to knit and your brain refuses to think about anything else — especially mundane things like laundry, cooking and other housework. That’s what this little project became.
You see, the BSJ is knit entirely of garter stitch and involves a series of increases, decreases and center double decreases to make your knitting go at right angles. It is knit in a single piece — and the fascinating thing is that it turns into a sweater without the normal sweater type shaping that you usually do. As I knit this project, I kept marveling at the ingenuity of the designer — how in the heck had she figured this out? It’s a combination of understanding geometry and the shaping required for a baby sweater — and EZ was someone who took theoretical concepts like right angles and turned them into pragmatic knitted garments. Perhaps a few pictures will help.
When you finish knitting the pattern — you end up with an oddly shaped piece of garter stitch fabric that looks like this:
As you can see, I knit this with two different yarns to create stripes. Now, when you fold the edges together, this striped fabric turns into this:
A jacket. That’s the surprise — it actually turns into a little sweater jacket with nifty right angle striping on the front and horizontal striping on the back. And — there are only two seams to sew! Just two — the sleeves at the top. The button band is done as part of the bottom of the knitted piece, so you just add buttons and you are finished. (I’m still looking for buttons, so I don’t have a photo of the finished jacket.)
Now, the written pattern is somewhat confusing at first. There are several resources available to help sort out the sketchy instructions given in both the Knitter’s Almanac and Knitting Workshop. However, the biggest question I had was “if I knit this at a gauge of 6 stitches per inch, what size is my jacket?” EZ just tells you it will fit an infant if you knit at that gauge and if you knit it at a gauge of 5 stitches per inch, you will get a bigger jacket that will fit a larger child about 1 year old. This is this question that seems to cause knitters the most problems.
I knit this BSJ using Dale of Norway Baby Ull, which is a fingering weight wool yarn and my gauge was 6 spi. The jacket measures 15.25 inches across the chest, just at the point where the underarm is. Looking at a standard body measurements chart for baby sizes, This jacket is a 0-3 months size.
Now this sizing issue really bugged me — so I had to figure out the sizing for different gauges and correlate them to actual baby sizes. (Yes, I am a geek.) After studying the pattern, I discovered that the chest measurement is at the point in the pattern where you are knitting 90 stitches. (90 divided by 6 equals 15). So, using this point of reference, I have calculated roughly what the corresponding size will be if the BSJ is knitted at gauges of 5.5 spi, 5 spi, & 4.5 spi. I put this into a table to help others who might be bugged by this question:
| Gauge |
Chest Measurement |
Size |
| 6 spi |
15-16 in. |
0-3 mos |
| 5.5 spi |
16-17 in. |
3-6 mos |
| 5 spi |
18 in. |
12 mos. |
| 4.5 spi |
20 in |
18 mos. |
References:
Pattern: Ez’s instructions for the Baby Surprise Jacket can be found in Knitter’s Almanac
or Knitting Workshop
and/or it can be purchased from Schoolhouse Press.
Row Counter: A handy tool for keeping track while knitting the BSJ can be found here: http://www.box.net/shared/eugvsfb3lt
Video: There is a six-part video series on the BSJ, here is the link to the First Episode.
Ravelry Knitters — there is also a Rav Group for the BSJ.
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Wow I like the texture that stitch seems to have. I’ll have to try it out sometime!
I will be there tonight with my shawl.
I couldn’t view the video, but I am not sure I understand. Does the K1b increase the # of stitches? Do you pull it up to knit with your regular stitch?
Thank you! This looks plush, and I’d like to try to work the stitch into boot cuffs.
Cheers, Avis
The K1b does not increase the number of stitches. When you “knit one below” you go into the stitch loop below the stitch on the needle and knit it like a regular knit stitch — you simply pull it off along with the stitch loop on the needle.
I knit a lot for newborns and was looking for a simple pattern with a chunky look…Thank you very much and do keep posting.
This deep texture, with lots of warmth-trapping air pockets, will be great for winter scarves!
k1b means knit one through back of stitch. I hope that makes sense.
I did some research on this — I only found one reference that stated that k1b may mean “knit 1 through the back loop”, but the reference also said that k1b may also mean “knit one below”. Three other references all gave k1b as “knit one below”.
“knit one through back of stitch” is often abbreviated as kb or kbtl.
In the case of the Bee Stitch pattern — k1b definitely means “knit one below” NOT “knit one through back of stitch”. Readers — please read the explanation of how to do the “knit one below” — if you knit through the back of the stitch and not below — your Bee Stitch will not be correct.
Doing a stitch now called honeycomb brioche it looks very similar
I cannot view the You Tube video
I also cannot access the video, Not sure how to make this pattern even though it looks very simple.
in this pattern, “k1b” means knit one below. In other patterns it may mean knit one through back of loop. Always read the abbreviation instructions to avoid confusion.
The way I understand this stitch is: When you come up through stitch below, you wrap yarn around the right-hand needle in back (like you normally do when knitting a stitch) and then go through the stitch on left-hand needle and take it off. Please correct me if I’m wrong…..
Thanks i would love to try this.
This was the best of all the explanations for the b-stitch that I have seen. Thank you–I have a pattern that I want to make which has row s2 and 4 doing a knit-pearl pattern and doing a b-stitch under a pearl is possible but much harder than thr knit stitch so I have been struggling with that. Now when i knit the rows between the knit under is a breeze. So I’m really happy to have found your help.
Thanks a bunch.
Doris Nixon
LOVE THS BEE STITCH BUT YOU SAY TO CLICK ON VIDEO ON HOW TO DO THERE IS NO VIDEO ON YOUR SITE NOTHING COMES UP
COULD YOU EMAIL ME
I like the name Bee Stitch. I’ve been doing this pattern for many years and called it, Honeycomb or Alternating Fisherman’s Rib in the U.K. If you don’t alternate the k1b, it is then Fisherman’s Rib.
Knitting through back loop is usually abbreviated as. K1tbl.
Thanks for letting me know. It appears that this video is no longer available on YouTube.
I love this stitch but what kind of projects can I make besides a square or rectangle?
The video is available here