EZ does not mean Easy

A little background on the EZ Baby Sweater that I am knitting. It's a famous baby sweater pattern in the world of knitters, Elizabeth Zimmerman is a master knitter, known to millions of knitters, and Elizabeth used to have her own show on PBS. However, I didn't know any of this when I took up the art of knitting.

One day while looking through the KnitHelp Forums of knitter's finished projects I saw a sweater that looked very familiar. I looked again and found a couple more, then realized that my son was given one just like it when he was born, at that time it was 12 years ago. I hadn't parted with it since it was something handmade. When both children grew out of it, the little sweater found a second life as a sweater to my daughter's Build-A-Bear...that was until I decided to find out more about this little knitted treasure.

After learning a little bit more about Elizabeth Zimmerman, Meg Swanson, and the world of Zimmermania, I purchased a couple of Elizabeth's books, and the EZ Baby Sweater pattern. After I tried to read the instructions and figure it out for myself I then decided to invest in the DVD that not only explained the pattern, but showed you how to knit. Wise choice, because for me, EZ in the pattern means Elizabeth Zimmerman and not EASY.

I have knitted, and frogged, and knitted and frogged, and well, you get the picture. My friend's baby maybe a toddler before I finish this. However, I finally got it and have been able to knit without too much trouble to this point. It does look rather odd as I knit. When people ask what I am knitting, I just smile and say a baby sweater, they either look really amazed or just confused. For the first couple weeks I was working on the sweater, I carried around the other one so I can see what I was doing. As well as show those who were dazed and confused by my project what is should look like when it was finished.

Here is the piece unfolded:

Here is it folded...Surprise! It actually is starting to look like a sweater!
I finished seaming and sewing in all the ends of my Country Jacket Sweater, washed it and set it it out to dry under a ceiling fan. I noticed the yarn was very bushy, not smooth and shiny as when I first knit it. I tested shaving it with my sweater shaver and even though it was time consuming, the results were good giving the yarn it's "new" look again. Because the yarn is so bulky, it may take a while to dry completely, then I can finish giving a complete shave and sew the buttons on. Then it will be considered a "Finished Objected." I will post pictures when I get it all done.

I started a skirt for my daughter, but got a little confused on one round of instructions, so it's just waiting until I can get back to it. I did get some help on Raverly to clarify what exactly the instructions mean. Other than that, the pattern isn't too hard, just a lot of stitches to keep track of!