Say hello to Aunty Claire! My little neice, Amelia Rose (Milly, for short) was born last week. So, of course, the first thing I did was knit. And also, of course, it had to be shoes!
Milly’s reaction to the shoes wasn’t quite what I’d been hoping for – it mostly involved kicking furiously until they fell off! Still, maybe four days old was a teensy bit young for me to be inflicting ridiculous shoes on the poor child.
These are Saartje’s Bootees, from a free pattern on Ravelry.
The yarn is a lovely hand-dyed sock yarn (“Skeins” superwash merino bamboo) which is currently being knitted into socks, but I thought I could sacrifice a few metres to make these.
I started knitting on 2.25mm needles, but the shoes came out much too small. 2.75mm needles would have been too big, so I ended up using an odd size of imperial English needles that were bigger than 2.25mm but smaller than 2.5mm. I could only find dpns in this peculiar size, so I had to get a bit creative with a lump of plasticine to stop the stitches from falling off the ends! I made the larger size, and it came out to the correct measurement for the smaller size, which was about 3¼” long. Just right for tiny baby feet!
Strangely, none of my local shops actually carry 2.5mm needles. I think it might be time to go online and order a little pile of circulars in a good length for knitting socks.
fab. How long did they take?
I love this pattern so much. Did you have nice baby cuddles? I think new babies all hate being clothed at all.
They look fantastic – so cute. I love the buttons too, where did you get them?
@Becky, they took me three evenings – one for each shoe, including the first one that came out too small! I’m a slow knitter though, so I think it would be possible to make a pair in an evening. 🙂
@Nicola, maybe you’re right! I did have some very nice baby cuddles, thank you. 🙂
@Lucy, the buttons came from http://www.fabricland.co.uk. I wanted pink ones, but couldn’t find any the right shade. Then Barbara showed me these and they were perfect!