This is without doubt my favourite booties pattern. Everyone who sees these booties squeals and gurgles, even my stony-hearted husband. And if you knew my husband, you’d know that these booties must be very cute indeed.

I’ve knitted several pairs now, and keep getting requests to knit more - even from mothers-not-yet-to-be!

Christine’s pattern is wonderfully clear and easy to follow, though I must admit I did falter at the bit that forms the ridge around the sole. (The ridge is what makes these booties so very special, and you can see them more clearly in the third photo.)

The technique involves repeatedly yanking a stitch several rows below up onto your left needle. This proved fiddly with the tiny stitches and my ailing eyes, but I fared much better when I pre-hooked the next 2 stitches to be yanked onto spare needles. This may not make much sense now, but it will do when you come to that part of the pattern.

One unnecessary mod, simply because I can’t leave well alone, is that I did a purl row to create the purl ‘ditch’ that you can see if you look closely just above the sole. I quite like it.

Lastly, because I’ve knitted a few of these booties I’ve got bolder and have actually managed to make a pair in the round. The pattern isn’t that difficult to convert, and as a relative beginner if I can do it then anyone can.

Very lastly, I’ve knitted these in several different yarns but the Artesano Superwash Merino is more to my liking than any other yarn I’ve used. The finished bootie comes out very sturdy and stocky, for want of a better description, and suits this particular pattern very well. I went up a needle size and they still came out small - 8cm in length. I’ll come back and update this page to let you know if they fit my grandbaby to be, due in Jan 16.

Oh, one more thing - I had a fair bit of yarn left over and I used some of it to knit 14 rows of edging for a matching beanie hat. In fact from two 50gm balls of wool - one in ‘biscuit’ and one in cream - I got one pair of booties and two beanie hats.