Val Pierce - Knitted Baby Booties

Val Pierce's passion for knitting began when her father taught her to knit at the age of five. Later in life she began home knitting for yarn manufacturers, and since then she has made a huge range of items, from evening dresses to teddy bears. She later began designing items of her own, and before long Val's designs were appearing regularly in national knitting and crochet magazines. She also teaches knitting, as well as a range of other needlecrafts, to both adults and children. Val lives and works in Shropshire. First published in Great Britain 2011 Search Press Limited
Wellwood, North Farm Road,
Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR Reprinted 2012 Text copyright Val Pierce 2011 Photographs by Debbie Patterson at Search Press Studios Photographs and design copyright Search Press Ltd 2011 All rights reserved.

No part of this book, text, photographs or illustrations may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, photocopier, internet or in any way known or as yet unknown, or stored in a retrieval system, without written permission obtained beforehand from Search Press. Print ISBN: 978-1-84448-641-0 EPUB ISBN: 978-1-78126-034-0 Kindle ISBN: 978-1-78126-089-0 PDF ISBN: 978-1-78126-143-9 The Publishers and author can accept no responsibility for any consequences arising from the information, advice or instructions given in this publication. Readers are permitted to reproduce any of the items in this book for their personal use, or for the purposes of selling for charity, free of charge and without the prior permission of the Publishers. Any use of the items for commercial purposes is not permitted without the prior permission of the Publishers. Suppliers If you have difficulty in obtaining any of the materials and equipment mentioned in this book, then please visit the Search Press website for details of suppliers:
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Contents

Introduction The announcement of a new baby never fails to generate excitement in any family.

Aunts, cousins, mothers and grandparents all reach for the knitting needles and cannot wait to begin creating something special for the tiny newborn. Irresistibly cute and quick to make, bootees have proved to be a welcome gift for generations; with this in mind, I have designed twenty pairs of adorable little bootees for you to choose from. They range from traditional lacy designs, cute tiny duckling slippers, little strawberry-inspired bootees, trendy fluffy boots and a range of more sturdy-looking knitted boots especially for baby boys! Each design takes just one ball of yarn or less, and many can be made from the odds and ends left over in your stash. Novice knitters will be able to make many of the designs, and with a little bit of supervision, even children who are learning to knit can have a go at making a pair of bootees for their new brother or sister. Either follow the designs as they are or adapt them to suit your own colour choices, ribbons and embellishments to create a truly unique gift with a little bit of love knitted into every stitch. Happy knitting!

Hints and Tips When knitting baby bootees, you will normally have a small number of stitches to cast on when beginning the project.

It is therefore important to make sure the cast-on edge is elastic enough to enable the babys foot to fit into the bootee when it is sewn up. Either cast on loosely, or use the thumb method of casting on that I have explained below. Some of the designs in the book use the stranding method of colour work, in which the yarn not in use is stranded across the back of the work in the form of small loops. Always try to ensure that they are pulled reasonably taut; not so tight that they pucker the work, but tight enough to make sure that little toes do not get caught in them when putting on the bootees. When sewing ribbons or embellishments on to bootees, make sure they are firmly attached so that the baby cannot pull them off. I have used no buttons as fastenings in any of the projects for this reason.

Increasing m1 = make one stitch by picking up the strand between the stitch you are working and the next stitch on the needle, then knit into the back of it. This method of increasing is used where you do not want the increased stitch to be visible (see ). Decreasing K2togtbl = knit two stitches together through the back loops. This method of decreasing a stitch is used so that the stitch slants to the left (see ). It is normally worked with K2tog on the opposite side of the work to give a uniform look to the shaping. Bobbles Bobbles are used in knitting sometimes to create texture.

They are made by knitting into the same stitch the stated number of times, then knitting one, two or even three rows on these stitches before finally decreasing the extra stitches to form the bobble. It is used in the pattern for , where it is referred to as MB. A design will always state the required number of increases and decreases. MB = make bobble as follows: K1, P1, K1 all into next st, turn, knit, turn, knit, slip 2nd and 3rd sts over 1st st (bobble made). Making a twisted cord 1. 2. 2.

Making sure that your yarn is folded exactly in two, hold one end and ask someone else to hold the other end or loop it over something so that you can keep it taut. 3. Start twisting the yarn in one direction only until the whole length becomes tight and firm. 4. Stop twisting. 5. 5.

Let go of the centre and allow your cord to twist on itself. Tie these two new ends together. Trim if required to form tiny tassels. Using a blunt-ended needle Almost all of the bootees in this book have ties of one kind or another. It is relatively easy to thread ribbon through eyelet holes, but where you need to thread through the actual knitted fabric a large-eyed, blunt-ended needle is very helpful. It allows you to push the cord or ribbon through between the stitches without catching or damaging the knitted fabric.