Monday, June 8, 2009

Adult Surprise Jacket Calculator

Several people have asked me to share my ASJ calculator to help do the math for Elizabeth Zimmermann's Adult Surprise Jacket pattern. I emailed it to a bunch of people, but now I think it's easier just to post it.

Feel free to download this calculator and put in your own measurements and gauge. You will still need to get the pattern itself (you can order it from Schoolhouse Press, or it's in the book The Opinionated Knitter) but this will do the calculations for you.

Click this link to go to a page where you can download the spreadsheet. Let me know if there are any problems!

15 comments:

Marthacelia said...

Hi, I cannot open the pdf for calculator. for adult surprise jacket and i am a large person who would like to make one. mcfrech@verizon.net

BeMedina said...

It's not a pdf. It's an Excel spreadsheet. You need to have Excel installed on your computer. I think the OpenOffice free suite also opens Excel spreadsheets.

Diana, thanks a lot for that marvellous gift.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for putting this together!!! I am so mathmatically challenged, and you have made it so easy for me. Love the BSJ's and now to start my first ASJ. Thanks, again!

Nan Burrows said...

This is wonderful!!! Thank you so much for your gift to everyone. I am a plus-sized woman and never would have put pen to paper to begin to figure it all out, and you've made is so simple. Again thank you!

Naomi

Diana said...

I'm sorry the directions for downloading were out of date - Google seems to have rearranged the page. On the same blue band with the file name on the left, there's a little downward pointing arrow at the right. Click this to download the actual spreadsheet.

If you still have trouble, leave another comment and I'll try to get it fixed.

Unknown said...

I cannot find a down arrow to click to download the Excel sheet calculator. I was able to download it to my Tablet, but not to my computer. Is there any other way to get it? It shows up on my tablet as a download, but it doesn't sync to my computer, therefore I can't print it. I don't understand why. Please help.

Diana said...

Jean, I'm not sure why you aren't able to download the calculator. When you click the link in the original post it should take you to a page saying ASJcalc in the top left corner, and a big green X in the middle, right beside the text ASJCalculator.xls

Immediately to the right of this text it says my name (Diana Parker) and the date I uploaded the calculator. To the right of that there is a dark blue, downward pointing arrow.

If you click this arrow, you will be prompted to "open or save" this document. Choose Save. It should automatically be saved in your Downloads folder if you are using a Windows PC. You can open this folder and double click the file to open it (as long as you have Microsoft Excel installed on your PC.)

Please let me know if you continue to have trouble. You can leave me your email in a comment and I'll send the file to you directly if you like.

-Diana

112 sewing said...

Diana, what do you mean by wingspan. I want to make sure i calculate it correctly

Diana said...

Hi! Glad you're finding the calculator useful. By "wingspan", I mean your wrist-to-wrist distance with your arms spread out horizontally.

Veronica said...

When it states gauge is that the number of stitches per 4 inches?

Diana said...

Veronica, yes, the gauge you put in the green box is your number of stitches for four inches. The calculator will divide it by 4 to get the gauge-per-inch and then do all the other calculations you need.

Annathy said...

Diana, thank you for your wonderful spreadsheet! I love spreadsheets :) That being said, I have owned the patterns for the BSJ/CSJ/ASJ for AGES. I even bought the Meg Swensen DVD with the printed BSJ pattern, but I have no desire to knit the BSJ. I have decided after all these years that I am good enough (to understand the directions) to knit the ASJ. I cast-on and did my double decreases for several ridges. Somehow I found myself in an error, having 45 sts before point A and 44 sts after point B. FROG! Again, I searched the internet (as before) for some type of video help with the ASJ (everything seems to be for the BSJ) then I found you. Using your spreadsheet I was elated to see that I did all my math correctly the first time. I have one question (thus far) that you do not address in your spreadsheet. At what point should I start stripes? Thank you in advance for your reply.

Diana said...

Thanks for your compliments, Annathy - I'm delighted my spreadsheet helps you!

To place your stripes, here is a guide with photos. It's for the Baby Surprise Jacket, but the principles apply to the Adult Surprise Jacket too:
http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Baby_Surprise_Jacket/#Placing_Your_Stripes

The short answer is that stripes you knit while doing decreases (the first part of the pattern) will end up on the ends of the sleeves and across the shoulders of the jacket. Stripes you knit while doing increases (the last part of the pattern) will end up around the bottom edge and framing the fronts.

meriwinkle said...

I have a question: On the excel sheet, what is meant by "ease." Everything else seems easy enough, but I'm not experienced enough to understand everything.

Diana said...

Hi, Meriwinkle!

Ease is the word for extra room in a garment. For example, if the knitter's bust measures 34" and she knits a sweater that measures 36" in the bust area, the sweater has two inches of ease.

Hope this helps!