Show Me Your Bootie

Been shakin' booties for the last few days, so to speak. They are great fun and fast to knit. I'm playing catch-up with a friend who's had her new boy for a couple months now and there's another friend with a girl due any day. I found this pattern for Gansey booties free from Knitting Pattern Central on the web. But of course I had to change a couple of things...

On the purple booties, which are for the little girl, I added a girlie finish to the cuff. You can do this stitch as a cast-off for any number of even stitches. I adapted it from a book of knitted edgings that I had, but modified it slightly.

On the teal bootie, I changed the pattern on the top slightly. For both booties, I used KnitPicks Swish worsted in Indigo Heather and (I think) Marine Heather. Great colors and very soft. It's much softer than Lamb's Pride Superwash Worsted. And the other good thing about Swish, is it is essentially the same yarn as the KnitPicks 'Bare' Superwash Merino yarn that you can use to dye your own. Last winter, I dyed up a bunch of the Bare yarn, then ordered the Swish to use with it. Looks great together. And machine washable.

Instructions for dainty bobbled edge:

At start of cast off row:
*k1, but don't slip stitch off the L needle. Instead, place loop back on to L needle. One new stitch created.
Put your R needle in between the two stitches on L needle. Draw loop through as if you are knitting and place this loop also on the L needle. Now you have created 2 new stitches next to the first stitch (group of 3 stitches).*

k2 and pass the first st over the second st on the R needle (you have cast off one st).
k1 and pass the first st over the second st on the R needle (you have now cast off two). You will have one st remaining on the R needle.
k the next st and pass the first st over the second st on the R needle. One st remains on R needle.

Repeat from * to *.
k1, cast off 1 on R needle as before. Repeat 3 more times.
Repeat the last two lines above until all stitches have been cast off. Cut yarn and weave in.

Now I'm on to knitting a couple of coordinating hats to match the booties.

I also finished the scarf I was working on. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, some projects just don't go as well as you'd like. I love the cabled pattern I chose for the scarf, but I ended up running out of one of the yarns a little early, so the scarf ended up a little shorter than I would have liked. It is still really pretty and will look awesome wrapped around and tucked into a jacket or coat. The colors are lovely.