Christine's baby booties

So, years ago I posted a free pattern for Christine's baby booties as a PDF download. As you've noticed I haven't been around my blog in quite a while - in the meantime the hosting platform of the download shut down and was replaced with some other site, but the PDF disappeared.

I've only just found out about that the link doesn't work. I'd like to put the PDF back up for download again because I believe that's most comfortable if you want to keep the pattern in your collection, but right now it's quicker to just enter it as a blog post. So, here you go (I'll hope to add photos at a later time):

Christine’s Baby Booties

Materials
1 skein of baby yarn
A set of DPN’s; metric size 2-3, or according to the yarn

Cast on 40 stitches, divide evenly on 4 needles. Make sure not to twist! If you use stitch markers, place one here.
Purl 3 rows, knit 3 rows, p 3 rows, k 3 rows, p 3 rows.
K 1 row; *k2tog, yo, k2*, repeat till end of row. K 1 row. The top part is now finished.

Continue with the middle 11 stitches. Leave 14 stitches on one side and 15 on the other on 2 needles on hold.
*P 1 row, k 1 row, p 1 row.* Repeat 8 times.
K over all stitches again; pick up and k 10 stitches from each side out of the edge stitches. 60 stitches altogether. (If you find that with 10 stitches there is a hole in the booties, then pick up an additional stitch on each side – 11 instead of 10 each – and decrease those two extra stitches in the next round. Furthermore, to avoid holes when picking up and knitting these stitches, knit them through the back loop of the stitch. This avoids a hole.)

Distribute the stitches evenly on the needles (10 stitches, then 20, then 10, then 20 again). Purl 3 rows, knit 3 rows, p 3 rows, k 3 rows, p 3 rows.

Now to the bottom of the booties:
- P 1 row. P5 and place marker.
- K 6 stitches, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 9, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 6. P 1 row.
- K 5, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 7, k2tog, k16, k2tog, k 5. P 1 row.
- K 4, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 5, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 4. P 1 row.
- K 3, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 3, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 3. P 1 row.
- K 2, k2tog, k 15, k2tog, k 1, k2tog, k 16, k2tog, k 2. 40 stitches remain.

Knit 1 row and then cast off all stitches. - Either cast off by turning the bootie inside out – including the needles, distributing the remaining stitches on 2 needles and knitting all the remaining stitches together. Or simply cast off and then seam the stitches. I prefer knitting the stitches together, that way I don’t have to seam.
Alternatively, the kitchener stitch can be used here. It might give the smoothest result.

Finishing:
Pull an i-cord / a cord / a band through the yarnover-holes.

Too many pictureless posts

...that's why you get 2 this time!
K is just on his way back to Munich, he's somewhere over Asia right now. He's also bringing the camera back, so I can start taking pictures real soon again. I'm cleaning out our place a bit today, so he won't be too shocked when he arrives tomorrow morning.

This first picture is from the first weekend of February (time is running, it's incredible how fast it is!) when the Security Conference was on. K and I stumbled in the middle of a rally, and I had the feeling (yet again) that there was more police than demonstrators. What was also striking was the number of young and firm police guys... as if they were fresh from the academy.


Apparently, the whole conference weekend when quite smoothly, no excesses whatsoever.

On the yarn front I have some sort of finished objects. Remember my pot holders made from recycled yarn? I think I had 4 small ones before, and ended up with 3 large ones (the pic shows the latest 2). The crocheting is all done, all I have left is to weave in the ends and I'm not really loving this part. I guess I'll do that when I can't work on the K_sweater any more.


The K_sweater is doing good, the sleeves are all done now! But before I begin putting it all together so I can knit on the turtle neck, I'm ripping out the top parts of both back and front. I'm making the bit between the armpit and the shoulder decreases a bit larger so it doesn't pinch or is too short. I'm sooo close to finishing this one! I can't tell you how excited I am... this would be the first sweater that fits, hopefully! Okay, it's the first sweater at all, if I don't count the baby jumper for my nephew. Stay tuned for more sweater news next week!

To dye for

There's some white sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% acrylic or whatever, in my stash that I bought ages ago. This yarn is longing to be dyed. Right now I happen to have a couple of beetroots leftover in my fridge, and as K is still on holiday I'm not likely to eat them; I'm just not a great fan of beetroots. However, as I know the color of beetroot (my family are beetroot-lovers. My mom always makes a salad, and I know what her lips look like after such a salad), I thought it might look nice on the yarn. I haven't dyed anything apart from easter eggs before (here, it didn't matter if the color didn't stay on long), and I don't want the color to wash out (too) easily. Is there a way I can make the natural color stick to the yarn without washing out? Do I have to add chemicals, or is there a natural way of dyeing? I heard that back in the olden days dyers would use urine to help make a good color, but I don't want to be this natural. Is there anything I have to pay attention to while dyeing? Or am I just insane, wanting to use natural dye (or dyeing in general)?

Something else, for a change

The back and front of the K_sweater are done! I didn't take pictures though, because the sides roll up so much, and I didn't have the time to look for my fixing pins yet.
Before I start the sleeves I wanted to do something else in between though; I promised a colleague of mine who's having a baby in spring that I would make some baby booties and a little hat for her. That's what I wanted to knit in my "sweater break", but then I remembered something that was buried deep down in my stash:


Crochet pot holders! Simple yet efficient, and essential for everybody. Well, if they have a kitchen, or a stove.
When I moved to Munich three and a half years ago, it was K's and my first apartment and although I had collected a few kitchen things, I didn't have pot holders. I didn't see the point of buying some, as I had learned to crochet about a zillion years ago and I thought it couldn't be so hard. I made a few pot holders and an oven glove. However, some of the pot holders turned out to be too small so I frogged them a few months ago and put the yarn in my stash box and closed it. Well, until Saturday. Friends of mine just moved house and I thought an oven glove and some pot holders were quite a nice (and practical) present. Plus, I only have two pot holders left and one of them is in our wok when it's not in use (this place is very small and for the last 3 years I've been the queen of piling things) to keep it from being scratched by the glass baking dish.
I've got some more yellow and orange cotton yarn, leftover from some more frogged pot holders... looks like I'm gonna crochet for a bit.

This is for Grace

Above are most of the squares I've made for Grace so far. The colors aren't quite acurate, because I took the pictures at dusk. But I think the patterns come out quite well. Hopefully, I'll get some more done soon, and then off they go in the mail, heading towards Canada!