Pattern/Technique: Baby Boots by Appalachian Baby Design, size 6 months
Modifications: None
Materials: Mountain Meadow Worsted Laramie: 1 skein Medium Grey, 1 skein Dark Grey
US7 circular needle (diameter didn’t matter as the pattern is knit flat and seamed)
Pencil
New skills: Loop stitch
Lessons/Notes: I was pretty impressed by the softness of the Mountain Meadow yarn, especially for a 100% wool. I’d consider this a contender for a future sweater project.
The loop stitch was a bit tricky, but I found that getting even loops was easier if I kept a few stitches on the pencil at a time (I think I ended up carrying up to 11-12). Then after purling the next row, I pulled at the loops once more to stretch them out and really lock them in place.
On the instep section where you pick up and knit, I tried picking up and knitting into the edge stitches (leaves a visible line on the front of the work) and picking up 1/2 stitch from the edge (leaves a purl row / negative space on the front of the work). I found that the edge stitches were easier to pick up and the line blended in nicely with the rest of the ribbing.
I had to think a bit about how to knit in to the bar of the garter section to make the sole, but I figured out that it was a pretty standard pick up and knit, where you go under the bar with your active (right) needle, wrap the yarn and pull it through. It also helped that all of the bars I was knitting into were the contrast color.
I ended up using the tails from the color swaps to seam the sole and back of the boots, which was super handy. As per the pattern, I didn’t seam the dark grey loop section at the top of the boot. When seaming up the back of the boot I used a mattress stitch, which gave me a neat stripe of 2 knit stitches that is a pretty cute contrast to the 1x1 ribbing.
What I'd do differently: My soles were a lil wonky when I seamed them and I would have been happy if they were a liiiiitle neater. I suppose if I were really finicky I’d also do a SSK for one of the decreases on the sole to make them symmetrical, but I’m trying to get over those perfectionist tendencies (It’s literally on the bottom of a foot - nobody’s going to see it)
Care: Hand wash, dry flat
