Tiny toes

I can't quite remember now how I got here, but I seem to be making baby booties. Now that the cookie commitments are fulfilled (for the moment), the Smiley Sweater beckons, and yet, I'm making boots for babies. I blame it on the heat.

I put the quarters in the photo, so you'd see exactly how small and precious these boots are. I think they'd fit a baby of about 6 to 9 months. 100% merino wool felt and some truly scrumptious 70% wool/20% angora/10% silk for the cuffs. So soft and special.

I guess it all started when I saw a pile of knitting books in some yarn shop's newsletter. I was quite taken by the photo on the cover of Baby Love: Knitted Booties for Tiny Feet.  All I could see was the cover and title, but the photo was intriguing enough for me to go into search mode. The book is by Catherine Bouquerel.

Further searching led me to a fabulous deal on the very last copy at http://bookoutlet.ca/ at the very moment when they had a promotion going on. It was meant to be. I just love the way she has reduced for the instep of the bootie.

Here's my take on Peter Pan which is one of the designs in the book which also uses that clever decrease. These are made from Heritage 150 Paints by Cascade Yarns. It's a 75% merino superwash with 25% nylon. The booties are knit flat, and seamed up the back of the heel, but next time, I'm going to knit them in the round, once I've finished the sole. I also have some ideas for variations on the felt booties, so I guess I'm riding a baby bootie wave for a while.