08/11/2012: I realized last Saturday that I’m headed on vacation soon (in five days) and will be meeting my great-niece Bella for the first time. Yikes, need a gift ASAP! Actually I should say Hurray, need a gift - because I love having a little baby girl in the family to crochet for.

Last fall at the CGOA conference, I took a class on creating a (BSJ) baby surprise jacket in crochet - based on the style that Elizabeth Zimmerman made famous in certain knitting circles. (The class used a pattern created by the Jenny King, the class teacher - her pattern is available here on Raverly as well.)

The BSJ is a fun project, as you’re stitching it you think to yourself “This can’t possibly work” but, lo and behold, it does. After I got home, I saw that Leisure Arts had a booklet available with 8 variations on the design (all variations are not listed here on Ravelry) - so bought that booklet.

It was tough deciding which variation to make, but finally settled on the Ruffled Sweater. The body is complete, I need to seam and finish - as you can see, I’m using a predominately bright pink yarn with multi-colored flecks (Jelli Beenz) and will trim it in bright yellow. I’ll post more pictures later this week, hopfully one with Bella as a model!

08/12/2012: I seamed it together (with whipstitch, using tips learned at May 2012 meeting of Crochet Twin Cities) and was very pleased with the result.

Then I started the collar - and was not so pleased - had to frog it and redo. Here’s what I did differently the second time:

1) I had originally done the collar, Row 1 - 9, in the same size hook at the sweater. But it was just too stiff, didn’t roll at all - not sure if I was working it too tight or if it was because the collar is sc through both loops (the sweater itself is sc through FL only). So, after I frogged all but Row 1 (just couldn’t bear to redo the first row, you attach a new piece of yarn and work around neckline, and I didn’t want to work across some row ends again and have to re-count), I worked Row 2 - 9 using a J10 hook. In addition, the pattern includes increases in the collar (at the shoulder seams) for Rows 2 and 3 only - I thought the collar needed a little more roll so also did the same increase on Row 5 and then moved the markers about 4 stitches toward the center and did the increases again on Row 7.

So now I am, on the whole, pleased with the collar. The front ends are curling funny but I will wait till after I apply the ruffled edge, that might take away the curl.

So, all that’s left: ruffled edge on the collar and sleeves, body ruffles, and tie closure. (That’s another change to pattern directions - the pattern has you make the ties as part of the first two rows of the collar. Since I’m not sure which of the two yarns I’ll use for the tie, I’m doing it last.)

08/25/2012: It’s finished! Love the way it turned out. I ended up steam-blocking the collar before I put on the ruffled edge, that took out the curl. Another difference for the ruffles: the yarn I used for the ruffle was lighter weight than the body so I switched to G7(4.5mm) hook for all the ruffles plus modified the ruffle stitch slightly. The pattern said sc, ch 2 in each stitch to make the ruffle, I did sc, ch 2, sc - and it worked just fine. And for the tie, I worked a chain with the body yarn (pink yarn with flecks) and then worked the slip stitches back with the yellow yarn, then tied knots in the fringe at the end.

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of Bella wearing the sweater, she was busy sleeping or eating every time I saw here. Her mom (my niece) promised me she will send a picture later.