It’s been a while since this free pattern was available to knitters so I’m really pleased to be able to rectify that. Pleased in no short measure because it’s reminded me what fun these booties were to knit and make up, and to recall the serendipitous route they took from failed swatch to successful project.
Since the pattern was originally released 2013, I’ll take a few moments to explain.
Following the publication of my Lovely for Lavender pattern for hexagon shaped colourwork lavender bags, I thought I’d use the same approach to make a knitted hexagon quilt-style blanket with sock yarn leftovers. Sitting in front of the TV, I started knitting and made a few modifications as I went, only to find that the modified hexagon I had produced wouldn’t sit flat, and therefore wasn’t much use a for quilt blocks. You see what I mean….
Anyway, I put it in my knitting bag and moved onto the next thing…
Some time later I was looking through Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knit one, Knit all and saw her pattern for her start booties in a heavier weight yarn and worked in garter stitch and the shape reminded me of my swatch. I dug it out of my knitting bag and true enough it folded in the same way and made a bootie shape. The origami element of this pattern comes purely from Zimmerman, as has so much of the inspiration, techniques and approaches to our craft that we find so liberating and mind blowing. Anyone who’s ever knitted a Baby Surprise Jacket will know exactly what I mean.
As regular readers may be aware. I’m reviewing, updating and migrating all my free patterns to here on the blog. My time at Ravelry has to be strictly limited and I don’t want anyone else having to go there as the only place they can access a pattern. As you can perhaps imagine, making all these changes will take time and I’m doing this in between new pattern releases.
The pattern for the afterthought booties has all the information you need to mobilise your leftovers and has a full photo-tutorial to take you through the folding and sewing up of this pattern. So if you need a quick baby gift knit, or just have a weakness for cute bootees, these may be just the thing for you.
Until next time, Have fun knitting and folding,
Tess xxx
