Vine Stitch Scarf and Baby Surprise Jacket

I started this new scarf for my friend S. Pattern can be found here.

I was going to keep it as a surprise, but I suck at surprises, both as the recipient of a surprise and as a giver of a surprise. My husband finds it infuriating. I am that annoying person who says "Oh, you got me a gift? That's so great!" and then 5 minutes later will ask "Soooo, that gift, what is it?" and then ask again a day later, and the day after that, and the day after that - well, you get the picture. I think this has to do with my control freak/worry wart nature. I just don't like being taken by surprise, and I also dread that someone is going to hate a surprise that I plan for them, so I ruin it my checking in with them. Of course, I like to think that I am super sneaky about checking in, but in reality, I know I am not.

Anyway, this scarf is a very easy knit. You just need to know the knit stitch, how to slip a stitch and what passing a slipped stitch over another one means. There is only a 1 row repeat, but I think the results are lovely. It reminds me of fish-netting, but nicer (hmmm, I guess there are many that would not think fishnet is nice to begin with, but whatever). This scarf will be the beneficiary of a good soak and blocking so that the pattern will open up even more and look even lacier. I can't wait to finish this and send to S! Separately, I find the yarn choice extremely annoying. I bought Jo Sharp SoHo Summer DK Cotton at Churchmouse during my trip to Seattle. In fact, S and I chose it together. The color is muted and beautiful, like beachy gray skies, and it is soft with a nice sheen. However, this is the splittiest (is that even a word?) yarn I have EVER used. I mean, you look at this yarn wrong and it starts to split! I actually had to switch from the original pattern I had chosen for this yarn because of the splittiness. Overall, not sure I would buy this particular yarn again.

I also finished the Baby Surprise Jacket. This pattern is a classic pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman, a woman who is totally revered in the knitting community and who sadly has passed away. The jacket is a surprise because it goes from looking like this:

To this (after sewing two little seams for the sleeves, adding the buttons, and weaving in the ends):

I finished the actual knitting on this jacket a while ago in May, but had trouble finding buttons. I finally found buttons at Weaving Works in Seattle.

To give credit where credit is due, husband sewed on the buttons AND he graciously wove in the ends for the sweater. This is about the extent of his sewing skills. His mother taught him how to sew buttons before he left for college all those years ago, so that he could fix his own shirts should any buttons pop off. I am glad he knows how to do this because finishing knitted garments is my least favorite part of the knitting process.