My first Zimmermann

For those of you who don't know, Elizabeth Zimmerman is a bit of a knitting guru, rule breaker and beloved inspiration to knitters everywhere. I personaly love her writing style because it's blunt, humorous and open ended. She expects the reader to do their own thing and writes her "patterns" in a way that demands this. I write the word patterns in quotations because you really won't find your typical buy this much of this type of yarn and use this needle and it will be this size kind of directions. You have to read her instructions, witty paragraphs full of tangents, then think about what you want to do and make your own adjustments.

This pattern is from "Knitters Almanac" published in 1974, which has projects for every month of the year. February = Some Babies Things and since I've got 'some babies' soon entering my life I thought a little sweater might be fun.

It's been a while since I've followed a pattern. I forgot how much fun it is to knit!!! Seriously, I do it all the time, but usually just my own ideas, so it's fun to follow directions and witness what happens without having to really think about it. I get really excited about accomplishing the next task in the pattern and then finishing, just so I can start again.

So for this sweater I used Blue Sky Alpacas Royal. I love the color, called cameo, because it reminds me of a vintage slip. As I got started, following away, I realized my first mistake. The button holes needed to have been made from the very beginning and not half way in which is when Mrs. Zimmermann finally decided to mention them. oh well, no qualms, sometimes mistakes become the best design choices. I could have started over, but instead I just kept knitting away, figuring I'd crochet some loops later.

When I finished though, it occurred to me that the sweaters garter stitch yoke would look cute accented by brown... so I embroidered a little line and made ties instead. Who really wants to take time to button up a wriggly baby anyway??