Knitted in one piece until underarms. Pockets added later to cut down on seaming/end-weaving. 3-needle bind off for shoulders and hood seams.

I had enough yarn left from the 7 skeins to make these booties in a medium size.

Cable CO

Place markers between sides and back, i.e. count number of side stitches (45), pm. Count back stitches (57), pm.

1st row is right side

Slip first stitch purl-wise at the beginning of each row.

Faux seams: on wrong sides only, at the side seam edges: bring yarn to front of work, slip stitch purl-wise, bring yarn to back of work.

Pockets: I added the pockets at the end. The result doesn’t look like a patch pocket at all, rather it blends into the knitwork seamlessly. I marked the placement of the pockets with contrasting yarn (those are the red threads you can see in the photos): Count three stitches from edge (faux seam counts as one stitch). Weave yarn through ‘smile’ bumps with large needle. Length should equate to the width of the pockets so that they’re square in shape. Then count 13 sts, weave another marker thread through smile bumps again.

On right side, pick up the 13 st between markers starting from first row of work, knit till top of marker thread, cast off. Seaming: with a darning needle, sew the two sides by picking up ‘frown’ bump at edge of pocket and pick up ‘smile’ bump from main work. The thread markers will make this easy.

Buttonholes:
I added an extra inch (2.5 cm) to the length, and placed my buttonholes 11.5cm from CO edge (50 rows), on right front. The pattern says to place them on the left front, but I’m knitting this for a baby boy.

Very important, this. The pattern uses 2-stitch buttonholes for tiny buttons, even though they’ve somehow used large buttons. (I reckon they’ve glued ‘em on for the photo.) For 25mm (1 inch) buttons, I used this method, over 4 stitches. This means that for the button placement to be clear of the pockets, you’ll need to decrease the number of stitches between the buttonholes by the additional number of stitches per buttonhole (2+2). If you don’t, as I did first time round, the outer buttons will overlap the pocket.

So, for the 6-9 month size, leave 11, not 15, stitches between buttonholes. Start first buttonhole after 3 stitches as per pattern, next four stitches make up buttonhole, knit 11 stitches, then 4 stitches for second buttonhole. This 4-stitch decrease between holes makes up the difference between their 2-stitch buttonhole and my 4-stitch buttonhole. Knit last 3 stitches as per pattern.

Underarms: The pattern tells you to bind off 4 stitches at the sides and back for the armholes. Don’t. Leave them live for picking up later. Remember that the faux seam counts as a stitch.

So… RF knit 37, knit last 4 st this includes the faux seam edge then place these 4 stitches waste yarn. Knit next 4 back stitches and add these to the held stitches. Repeat for left side - continue knitting up to and including the last 4 back stitches and the following 4 left side stitches and place these 8 stitches on waste yarn (see photo). Continue knitting to end.

Next row: knit until you reach held stitches, then turn work. Continue knitting this right side until work measures 18.5 cm. Next buttonhole row: again, K3, make buttonhole, K11, make buttonhole.

Note: my measurement until the second buttonhole row is equal to the width of the space between the holes on the buttonhole row, for nice square positioning. I have 7cm between holes so knitted for 7cm before placing the second set of holes.