Monday, February 24, 2014

Christine's baby booties

So, years ago I posted a free pattern for Christine's baby booties as a PDF download. As you've noticed I haven't been around my blog in quite a while - in the meantime the hosting platform of the download shut down and was replaced with some other site, but the PDF disappeared.

I've only just found out about that the link doesn't work. I'd like to put the PDF back up for download again because I believe that's most comfortable if you want to keep the pattern in your collection, but right now it's quicker to just enter it as a blog post. So, here you go (I'll hope to add photos at a later time):

Christine’s Baby Booties

Materials
1 skein of baby yarn
A set of DPN’s; metric size 2-3, or according to the yarn

Cast on 40 stitches, divide evenly on 4 needles. Make sure not to twist! If you use stitch markers, place one here.
Purl 3 rows, knit 3 rows, p 3 rows, k 3 rows, p 3 rows.
K 1 row; *k2tog, yo, k2*, repeat till end of row. K 1 row. The top part is now finished.

Continue with the middle 11 stitches. Leave 14 stitches on one side and 15 on the other on 2 needles on hold.
*P 1 row, k 1 row, p 1 row.* Repeat 8 times.
K over all stitches again; pick up and k 10 stitches from each side out of the edge stitches. 60 stitches altogether. (If you find that with 10 stitches there is a hole in the booties, then pick up an additional stitch on each side – 11 instead of 10 each – and decrease those two extra stitches in the next round. Furthermore, to avoid holes when picking up and knitting these stitches, knit them through the back loop of the stitch. This avoids a hole.)

Distribute the stitches evenly on the needles (10 stitches, then 20, then 10, then 20 again). Purl 3 rows, knit 3 rows, p 3 rows, k 3 rows, p 3 rows.

Now to the bottom of the booties:
- P 1 row. P5 and place marker.
- K 6 stitches, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 9, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 6. P 1 row.
- K 5, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 7, k2tog, k16, k2tog, k 5. P 1 row.
- K 4, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 5, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 4. P 1 row.
- K 3, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 3, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 3. P 1 row.
- K 2, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 1, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 2. 40 stitches remain.

Knit 1 row and then cast off all stitches. - Either cast off by turning the bootie inside out – including the needles, distributing the remaining stitches on 2 needles and knitting all the remaining stitches together. Or simply cast off and then seam the stitches. I prefer knitting the stitches together, that way I don’t have to seam.
Alternatively, the kitchener stitch can be used here. It might give the smoothest result.

Finishing:
Pull an i-cord / a cord / a band through the yarnover-holes.