B Is For Booties

These are, of course, the famous Saartje’s booties.

How could anyone look at these and not want to knit them? 1221 projects, in 1868 queues of Ravelry knitters would agree with me, and that doesn’t count the non-Ravelry knitters who have knitted them. It was quite rightly voted a “Bobby” for best free pattern.

I knit these because I just had to. They’re not for a grandchild, not yet anyway.

Mr M & I are a ‘blended family’ with three boys, a ‘his’, a ‘hers’ and an ‘ours’. The ‘his’ is married, divorced and two school-aged children. The ‘hers’ is married with no signs of imminent children, but that may happen once they return from five years overseas. The ‘ours’ doesn’t have a girlfriend (or a boyfriend). So, no grandchildren to knit for. But when they come, I’ll be ready!

The yarn I used is Cleckheaton Merino Bambino.

Booties with a knitted teddy friend. I didn't knit him - I'm not sure where he came from - maybe my mum knitted him.

This photo shows a bootie I knit more than two decades ago. I don’t know why there’s only one or what happened to the other. I know I didn’t use a pattern, just knit it to the shape I wanted, and sewed it to a sheepskin sole (fluffy side inside of course). The wool has felted a bit, so I know it’s been worn, and washed.

And this photo shows another Saartje’s bootie, this time knitted in a self-striping cotton. For some reason, I really didn’t like how it knitted up. I only knitted one.

It seemed too big, particularly the height. This may be because I had just finished the other ones. I used the same needles and stitch numbers, but it cams up bigger. It may have been all right if I had had a tame baby to try it on and see if it really was too big.

But, I’ve ripped it. I may re-knit it down the track, but next time I would pay more attention to where the colour changes start, and put the dark blue at the sole and the light blue at the top.