Baby Booties

I have three friends who decided to get pregnant all at the same time, even though they never met or heard of each other and even live in different land masses. Just one of those coincidences. So I have been knitting baby things to gift when the babies arrive. I was surprised at the chaos I found when looking for baby booties' patterns on Ravelry. There are a couple of hundred patterns that are free, so, unless you are ambitious and want to knit something really eye-catching, there is no need to pay for a pattern. Surprisingly, the most popular patterns are some old patterns that have not only been written long ago (which is not a problem), but have never been corrected (which is a problem). I suppose I should not be too shocked since these are free patterns after all. I have spent so much time looking at these patterns, that I have decided to write a post with my findings.

The most popular pattern by far is Saartje's bootees. These are sort of girlie and my friends are all having boys. I did say coincidence, you see what I mean? Anyway, to conclude, Saartje's are lovely but I had to keep looking for a pattern I liked better.

Bootie patterns are pretty standard fare and one thing to notice is that popular patterns all advertise their stay-on ability. I wonder why?... It is obvious after going through some of the patterns that most popular does not mean better. On the contrary, as I mentioned above, some of the most popular patterns are riddled with errors and typos. The good news is that with hundreds of projects on Ravelry one can read other knitter's notes and find useful corrections (look at projects, then advanced search, then order results by most useful). So, despite the errors, I am sticking to these patterns, as I think it is safer.

As I was saying, bootie patterns are pretty standard fare. They differ mostly by construction:

Flat

Examples: Saartje's, Mary Jane's, Ruth's, knitgirl's, Baby Uggs, easy ones, etc, etc.

In the round

Examples: Christine's, Magic slippers, Blue Steps, seamless Saartje's and so on.

The question is, which one is better? Obviously, the reason to work in the round is to avoid seaming at the end. But I think most people prefer knitting them flat and then seaming, because these are so tiny they can be a bit of a pain to knit in the round. On the other hand, because babies do not stand on their feet, a seam across the sole, which is the most common, is not a problem. In any case, transforming from one to the other is usually straight forward and you will often find that some of the patterns on the above list are related in this way.

Another way patterns differ in construction is direction of knitting:

Sole-up

Examples: most of the flat ones (see the two exceptions below) and also the Magic slippers and Blue Steps.

Cuff-down

Examples: knitgirl's, Baby Uggs and the ones worked in the round with the above exceptions.

Note, when knitting in the round, working sole-up you start with a provisional cast-on, while working cuff-down you end with grafting or a small seam (some of these patterns are not 100% seamless). When working flat there really is no big difference in these two constructions in terms of ease or result. Again, it is often pretty straight forward to convert from one construction to the other.

I hope I did not make a mistake in the above lists. It is hard to keep track of so many patterns.

Which pattern to choose in the end is of course a matter of taste. Look at photos and choose one you like better. However, an important consideration is gauge. You must choose a pattern that works for your yarn and needles or else adapt the pattern yourself. Note that most of these patterns only offer one or two sizes.

Some final considerations and tips about specific patterns:

• Picking up stitches in sock yarn gauge is a real pain. If you want a really simple pattern to knit, avoid the ones that involve a lot of picking up stitches. On the other hand, I cannot vow for these patterns stay-on power, you must ask someone more experienced in these matters.
• Magic slippers can easily be converted to booties by following the modifications described here and here.
• knitgirl's are particularly cute for boys and particularly badly written. Important correction: there seems to be an error in the stitch count, the instep does not need to be centred but you must make sure the top and sole are aligned. Also in the comments someone corrects the pattern number of ridges to 6, but it looks to me there are 12 ridges in the photo (so ignore this correction). These explanations may be useful.
• Blue Steps is another very cute pattern. It has been corrected, but still has some typos and unclear explanations. However Hellahelen notes are great. Follow them and forget the original pattern.

That is all for now folks.