New baby knitty things!

Ok, I’m not having a baby, but I know a man who is. David, my oldest friend’s brother is going to be a dad for the first time in October and I couldn’t pass up the chance to make Saartje’s booties! There can’t be many of you who haven’t seen those little buttony beauties so without further ado, here’s my version:

I didn’t want to do boring blue for a boy/pink for a girl so I used Wizz aran in a lovely self-striping yellow/blue/pink/orange/purple/white colourway. I’m usually a bit wary of self-striping – you never know what it’s going to do until you start knitting but I’m glad mum persuaded me! It cost only £2.99 for two balls and I have enough left to make a hat (or do you think that would be overkill?!)

Because the yarn was a little thicker than the pattern the booties came out a bit big. I expected that, but I thought I might as well knit one just to see how big it would be. I decided to knit a smaller pair based on Karendidit’s mods for worsted. When I had knitted one of each, I found that I had done one complete colour length of the self-stripe! What are the chances? That meant that I would be able to get two matching pairs without having to waste loads of yarn Woo!

The purply-yellow ones are the smaller ones.

I also knitted a cardigan to match – this is bigger than newborn size, but I think the baby is likely to get a ton of newborn size clothes and might run out when he reaches 6 months or so!

It didn’t occur to me just how faffy it would be to get the stripes matching all around (bearing in mind It is knitted from the top down and then separated into 5 different bits) but with minimal waste, which was curiously mostly blue, I just about managed it. The pattern is the baby boy 5 hour cardi by Gail Bable and it was easy without being too boring. Didn’t take 5 hours though, more like two casual evenings, but it was still quick enough.

Don’t you just love 4-hole buttons? The thread is some from my precious vintage wooden spool collection but it was the only thing I had in a vibrant orange, and it had to be vibrant orange!

I can’t wait til October, until then they’ll just have to sit in a drawer.

Beccy