Baby Booties Challenge

 

A preview of the project:

Baby booties are done!

My friend is looking forward to some grandchildren in the not-too-distant future, and was asking me if I had any baby crochet patterns among the myriad of resources that I have. She wanted to get a head start on a baby project or two. So I looked, and found

A book of baby patterns to crochet.

Thumbing through the book, I found quite a few really cute patterns and thought this would be a good place for a crochet challenge. It isn't really vintage, like the magazines I have stored up, but, still a good opportunity to try something I haven't done before. It doesn't hurt that I can put the results toward an excellent baby shower gift.

This book has some very cute options in it, which I will explore more at the end of this post, but I'm going to focus on the challenge item first.

A cute collection of booties

The included patterns offer a variety of baby booties, including these. The yarn I had on hand was white with a pink fleck in it, so I was drawn to these in particular:

The Rose Booties

Cute, right? A couple of comments about the book in general. Notice that the print is a good size for easy reading. Also, the binding is a ring binding, which allows the book to stay open to the page you are working from. Good job, publisher!

On to the crochet. The pattern was pretty easy to follow, but the booties are constructed from several pieces, sewn together. I will admit to having some issues with that. Mostly, they are issues of practice and taking care to find the correct start to the joining of the pieces, but still.

So my first booty, even after trying a couple of times to get the sole attached to the sides is rather wonky.

Ummm. Is it supposed to look like that? NO!

The second attempt went better. (See, a matter of practice.) But I'm still not loving it. I just don't know why they need so many pieces!

Definitely better, but not perfect

And, no, it isn't quite finished, and might never be, honestly. I never did get to the roses. On the other hand, I did find out the the little skeins of thread were enough to make at least two booties. Back in the day when I knitted some pairs of socks, I needed a skein for each sock, so I wondered whether that would be the case for these. I had plenty of yarn for the pair in one skein, though.

Well, for my third attempt, I kinda went off the rails and adapted the pattern to be made in one piece. I had to sew the instep down, but it was connected in the right place, and I could work up into the stocking part either before or after I sewed the sides. 

My third attempt at booties - the keepers

My take on this book, and the booties? Well, I think that I could still do a better job on them, but the last ones are definitely usable as they are (more practice is in order, I guess). The pattern took me a few tries to get closer to their intended result, and I'm not done trying for the perfect result. Particularly how they described attaching the sole to the sides. It just looked weird in my opinion, following the instructions in the way I understood them (which could be an imperfect interpretation, I freely admit). I may try one of their other patterns in a different part of the book to see if that is done differently.

I would also be willing to try some of the non-booty patterns in the book. This cute nautical sweater, for instance:

Adorable

There are also several blankets that I could happily revisit:

Cute take on a granny square

Using a variety of stitches

A different take on blocks

I don't know that I would go crazy crocheting a dress or something like that for a baby, but there are several patterns in the book for those who would. There are hats, and more sweaters (a more likely make than a dress for me) along with other blankets and it seems to be a really nice variety of items, and if it is going to be grandparent season among my friends, I could really get some use from the book!