I'm about to become a grand-aunt. Or is that great-aunt? One of my nieces is expecting to pop out her first baby in a few days, and so I've been busy doing aunty things - like knitting booties. Ha! My brother will be a grand-father!
She'll probably get a bunch of them, as I know my Mother has knitted a few, and I believe my eldest siste was going to as well. Still, winter is almost upon us, so she should get some use out of them.
She had the foresight to let us all know she's having a boy, so we could make suitably coloured things. I decided to go with only one blue pair, and green and a natural brown colour for the others. The yarn is Cleckheaton Baby Cocoon, a 4ply 70% merino, 30% nylon blend that is machine washable, and lovely and soft.
The booties themselves all follow the same basic pattern, each slightly bigger than the other. They all have a different cuff, and the brown ones have a raised diamond on the top of the foot. I'd never knitted booties before, and was surprised how quickly I churned them out.
The patterns are from this book by Zoe Mellor that I borrowed from the library. It has, as the title suggests, 50 patterns, and most of them are quite cute. These aren't all unique patterns, though, many are simple variations on others, but the bonus with that is that you can easily see how to adapt the patterns to suit you yarn and needs.
It was quite funny, when I went to visit my parents a wee while back, my mother had been working with a pattern ripped from an old magazine for kids dotted socks that she'd found in a bottom of a bag of yarn odds & ends given to her by a friend. Turns out it was a excerpt from this very book!
My brother's step-daughter is also expecting (a girl) in August/September, so I'll probably borrow it again to make some more girly styles. I've already bought some more of the yarn in various shades - I'll have plenty with which to make myself a snuggly pair of socks or two as well.
]]>