Baby Surprise Jacket

The Baby Surprise jacket has a distinctive construction;^[3][4] it is knitted flat (back and forth on two needles)^[5][6] in garter stitch^[7] as one piece, then folded^[5][6] and seamed up to form the final jacket shape.^[1] The original 1968 version of the pattern gave a series of steps for the knitter to follow, more akin to an algorithm than a traditional pattern. The 2009 re-release had step by step instructions for all 97 pattern rows.^[8]

Zimmermann designed the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern in anticipation of the birth of her first grandchild,^[9] Cully Swansen, son of Meg Swansen.^[10] Zimmermann had been attempting to design a bonnet at the time, but found that the resulting garment, when folded, was reminiscent of a sweater.^[4] She gave it its name because "it looks like nothing on Earth when you have finished knitting it".^[2]

The pattern was first published in 1968 as part Zimmermann's Newsletter and Leaflet #21,^[9] then re-published in the spring 1989 and fall 1999 editions of Knitter's Magazine.^[11] It was posthumously republished by Schoolhouse Press in 2009,^[8] It was included in the 2013 updated edition of Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop.^[12] Zimmermann's grandson, Cully Swansen, designed a modified circular, stranded, version that was published that same year.^[10]

The Baby Surprise is one of Zimmermann's most popular patterns,^[9][2] archetypical of her style.^[5] It is considered a classic American knitting pattern.^[3] During the twenty-first century, accrued a fanbase on the internet,^[5] especially on the knitting database and social media site Ravelry. As of 2012, there were over 16,000 Baby Surprise Jackets recorded on the website.^[5] By 2014, that number had increased to over 20,000.^[3] In 2015, Yarn magazine described knitting the pattern as a "rite of passage" for knitters.^[2]