freebie friday: bootielicious

baby eyelet socks; circular seamless baby bootees; basic baby socks; T-strap booties

Lately I've been using lots of leftover sock yarn to make baby gifts. Booties seem like the classic crafter gift for a new baby, and they're also fun & easy to make with yarn you've already got handy. Instead of a regular Free Pattern Friday where I publish a new pattern, I decided to troll the web for some really good existing free bootie patterns & share them with you.

First though, my favorite of the four:



Baby Eyelet Socks, by Cynthia Hall.
Yarn: "Fade from Salmon" merino sock yarn from Lazy Perry Ranch.
This is a simple, fun pattern that looks extra-fancy. You can easily memorize this lace pattern and work on these booties on a car trip -- they'll be done before you even get there. Download it free from Pickin & Throwin.



Plain Baby Socks, adapted from the pattern above.
I also used the same pattern to improvise some plain baby socks -- just make the same socks in plain old stockinette stitch. They're simple, but the tiny-ness still makes them irresistibly cute. These were knit in leftover Trekking.


Basic Circular Seamless Baby Bootees from the Top Down, by Megan Mills.
Yarn: Sockotta
This pattern is great til you get to the sole, which requires a whole lot of grafting. It's kind of a weird way to end an otherwise well-constructed bootie, but since the baby is unlikely to actually be walking around in the socks, I guess a seam along the sole of the foot is no big deal. This is probably also the most practical of these four bootees, since it's got the little ties that make it harder for the baby to pull them off. This pattern comes in several versions, and I modified mine to have a roll-top edge. Download this pattern free from Megan's blog.



Finally, the T-strap booties. I've seen these done lots of different ways by lots of different designers. There was a Bootie Workshop that featured this booties style (in DK weight yarn), published in Knit Simple S07. The pattern is easy to translate to sock-yarn gauge, to facilitate the further use of leftovers, but since I didn't design these myself, I don't think I can publish the translation. But if you have this pattern from KnitSimple and you need help translating for sock yarn -- email me and I'll give you some hints. : )

T-strap bootie from sock yarn leftovers
materials:
leftovers from 1 skein fingering weight sock yarn
size 1 US needles (2.25 mm)
size B crochet hook (2.25 mm)
tapestry needle
stitch markers

gauge: 30 st / 56 rows = 4 inches

I hope you have fun using up your sock yarn leftovers on some of these bootie patterns. I find them totally addictive to knit. It makes me worry about the growing pile of booties on my desk, and whether at some point there will be more booties than babies to give them to, and I'll have to start putting them on the cat, which could only lead to trouble. But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.