Apple of My Eye Baby Hat and Booties

Good friends have happy news – after trying for a while, they’ve fallen pregnant. This is wonderful, and I know the little one will be the apple of their eye. That (and a stash of red yarn!) is why I knit up these apple-themed baby hat and booties.

There’s no pattern for either. I simply cast on the apple hat from the bottom, and knit away. Instead of working ribbing, I let the stockinette curl up. The hat is finished with an icord, and a couple of crocheted leaves. Best of all (for new parents!) the whole thing is washable.

The booties are similarly pattern-less. I cast on twelve stitches for the cuff and knit on, again letting the stockingette roll. Just above where I wanted to place the heel, I worked a round of yarn overs to thread the icord through later.

Because they’re so structured (with a heel, just like adult socks!) in theory, the booties should stay on. And the icord ties can only help!

Icord seems mysterious if you’ve never worked it, but really couldn’t be easier. Check out this tutorial. It reminds me of the lengths of French knitting we used to make at school (surely just a technique to keep us quiet, but I churned out metres and metres of the stuff!).

My friends were delighted with the gift. The fruit-theme was especially appropriate as they’ve been calling their child-to-be Raspberry, after the size it was when they first discovered it. I apologised for the various sizes of the baby hat and booties. “I have no idea if it will fit! I have no idea what size babies are!”

“The thing about babies,” said my friend, “Is they’re different sizes, and then they grow.”

“That’s why they’re so hard to knit for,” I said glumly.

“This is perfect though,” said my friend. “This’ll fit two different babies at different times. The gift that keeps on giving!”