My baby surprise jacket

This pattern was truly hard to get a hold of.

But I'm glad I kept trying.

Before even getting the pattern I researched a lot on the web. Here's what I found useful:

This was a series of videos for each stage. I found each one invaluable, especially the first one about sizes, gauge and yarn.

Here were some good tips about colour use and some useful pictures showing where your colour stripes will end up sitting on the garment.

Finally, this spreadsheet, which has been widely blogged about, was useful in the beginning then I stopped using it as I got used to following the pattern. Many others have found it very good.

But honestly, why is this pattern so closely guarded on the net? I understand copyright and all that and totally respect it, but with all this help on the net already, I was only missing a couple of row numbers from being able to knit it without the pattern. In fact, the pattern itself was quite disappointing, only two half columns in a magazine, and poorly written (despite its genius in design). Anybody else think this? 

The books were not available in Wellington libraries, the knitting shops didn't have them, or the worksheets, either. It was some good fortune I asked at my local knit shop and she copied the article from the magazine for me, agreeing it was just too hard to come by here. Send some copies to NZ please (the updated ones with notes and extras like how to knit a hood)!

So until a book turns up (I'm not paying upwards of $18US plus postage) at a local library I won't be able to try my hand at any other Zimmermann designs, and I would really like to. 

My darling looks divine in her EZ jacket anyway. I adore the colours I chose, especially the gold stripes and pink angora giving it a little fluff. The sleeves aren't long, but in fact that works for tiny hands being sucked all day long. 
 Str-e-tch! Oh life's so good being a baby.