Its no Surprise at all.

Let me say first that a Baby Surprise Jacket is a simple knit, not complex at all. It is elegant in its simplicity. You have to keep just two things in mind, and you have to do them right every time to make it work.

There in lies its complexity, its wonder, its marvel. Therein lies the reason why, some 50 years after it was first conceived, the Baby Surprise Jacket is still being knit, still being discussed and still being obsessed over by first timers like me.

It is also further proof that in knitting, within the simplest and most basic stitch, there lurks a humbling for those who need humbling, a lesson for those who would learn. Smarter more observant knitters would have no problem taking this project out to knitting group, but I am not one of those smarter more observant knitters.

I am marking the corner stitch each and every row. I have the decrease side marked at the beginning of the decrease row just to twig my memory that yes, this is the decrease side. I have made myself become familiar with what the decrease looks like on either side and I check it regularly to confirm that I am on the side I think I am.

A knitter will understand what I feel when I am knitting along, nice and peaceable like, and how, just when I am feeling strong, confident and in charge of this knitting, the thought suddenly crosses my mind, "Gee whiz, it feels like a long time since I did a decrease"

A knitter will completely understand how I feel when I realize that I have done this not just once, but 3 times. Knitting the same 6 rows.

I 'm going back in there now, girding my loins, brandishing needles. I am going to get past these 6 rows. If the fates are kind, the 6 rows after that are going to be a lot simpler.

The Baby Surprise jacket certainly is a surprise, it just isn't the surprise I thought I was going to get.