I recently heard about a family friend having her first baby, and decided that now seemed like the perfect time to make my first pair of baby booties. Little did I know how much stress would be caused by this simple decision!
First, I had to decide on a pattern, which as you may know from reading this blog, has been driving me crazy of late. I think because I don't have enough time to knit, I try to make sure that every pattern I try is "perfect" in some way or another. Clearly though, all that fixation does is make me go crazy and prevent me from starting any projects for days! Any tips for getting over this would be appreciated…In any case though, after literally days of searching, I finally found this pattern on Ravelry, and from the finished object pictures of the pattern, I decided it was something to try out!
Second, after finally selecting the pattern, I decided to use some leftover yarn in my stash, some Dale of Norway Stork from Samantha's baby blanket a few years ago, and knit up a quick gauge swatch which seemed to do the trick (another stress reliever as choosing yarn can be as stressful as choosing a pattern!). Then, I had to make a decision as to whether to follow the pattern as laid out (use straight needles) or substitute two circular needles or four dpns and knit the pattern in the round. After some thinking, I decided to go with two size one circular needles, adjusted the pattern to reflect knitting continuously on the right side, and off I went!
Ok, so that progress ended up being rather short-lived, as after making 1/2 of the first bootie, I decided that the small newborn pattern was just TOO small for any child, even if it is a newborn. I didn't really have a basis for making that decision, just that the bootie seemed way too small. So I decided to undo the entire 1/2 bootie and start the larger size pattern for three – six mos. old babies. And off I went again!
So that got me to another 1/2 bootie being completed before I decided it just seemed way too small again. At this point, I decided to google baby feet size, and discovered I'm not the only one who is completely confused by the size of baby's feet! From what I could gather, I should really be making a 3.5 to four inch long bootie, and so clearly what I was doing (around three inches) was not good enough! As such, I decided to switch to size three needles, and just hope for the best. Finally, when I was 1/2 done with that bootie, it seemed the foot would be able to stretch to a little over four inches, so it was a big relief.
The final measurements of the booties, after blocking, were:
3.5 inch long foot
2 inches from top to bottom of foot
4 inches from top of leg to bottom of foot
2 1/4 inch wide leg
I will definitely make these again — they are incredibly simple, fast to knit up, and use up such a miniscule amount of yarn (maybe a seventh of the ball?), in addition to being super-adorable, so its a no-brainer for the future (finally!)!
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