A Surprise for Blythe...

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Elizabeth Zimmerman.

If you are a knitter you have probably worshiped at the alter of this woman's talent at one time or another, if not, then you probably have no idea who she is, or how she revolutionized knitting in America.

But I wont spend long here talking about this woman's amazing talents (though that would be fun too). I will simply mention one of her most inspired patterns, the Baby Surprise Jacket

This little beauty knits up to look something like a striped blob... more like some exotic sea creature than an actual article of clothing. But once the knitting is finished, you do neat little origami like fold and a quick bit of seaming along the sleeves and presto! You have a gorgeous little jacket... and if you used a self striping yarn, you generally find that the colors have distributed themselves evenly in a aesthetically pleasing pattern.

Now what, you may be asking yourself, does any of this have to do with Blythe? Just this. A very talented Ravelry member Yvonne Wakefield, has posted a miniaturized version of the pattern that can be knitted up for dolls. You can imagine my excitement! I could finally make surprise jackets for my Blythes! Now you will need a Ravelry account to access the pattern, and it was not originally written with Blythes in mind but with a bit of tinkering I came up with this...

I used size 0 needles and superfine #1 yarn (fingering). The pattern comes in three sizes and I used the middle size to create this jacket. As you can see, it wears like a bolero and the colors distributed themselves quite nicely. I will most certainly be making more of these little guys. They knit up so quickly and are such great fun to do. So many thanks to Yvonne Wakefield for making this patten available for dolly use : )

Oh, and if any of you out there collect Leggys or Leggy-like dolls....

This is Vespa, my 1972 Leggy doll. Using the same needle size and yarn, the smallest size in the pattern will fit one of these girls perfectly. : )