Bootie Expose

The time has come to expose the bad bootie pattern writers that are out there making life difficult for knitters. I have never been a great pattern-theorist. I just followed patterns and hoped for the best. But now I’m pissed. I bought Zoe Mellor’s “Adorable Knits for Tots” book for the Mary Jane Booties. Here’s the problem. The pattern is completely unintelligent. After knitting for an hour or two, not knowing what shape you are striving for(because she has no schematic or explanation), you end up with a flat, strangely shaped piece of fabric that you are left to piece together and try to make decent. If I wanted to take a flat piece of fabric and put it together I would take up sewing.
Secondly, the seam is on one side of the sole, making the final product uneven looking if a baby foot is not already in it. Convenient that all of her shots of this bootie have a cute little sausage foot already in them. I was so upset with this stage of the bootie that I didn’t even photograph it before frogging.
I went online to see if the pattern had errors and found a plethora of negative reviews of her patterns, so I decided to see what else was out there. Lo and behold, there is almost the exact same pattern, but without the strap, in the Debbie Bliss Baby Book. Bad pattern writing is a virus! Lucky for me, my sister came upon a small, $3.99 book at the supermarket in Omaha by the cash register. Gotta love the Midwest for having knitting accessible, even in the most mundane places. The book, "Knitting for Babies", a special pub. from fbnr.com, had a Mary Jane bootie pattern that is totally adorable.

Pattern: Knitting for Babies, special pub. from fbnr.com (847-329-5657)

Yarn:KnitPicks Andean Treasure in Wild Rose Heather

Needles: size 3

The pattern starts at the bottom of the sole, goes up through the toe with minimal, but well-placed shaping and binds off at the ankle, ending with grafting the two sides of the cast-on sole together with kitchener stitch. Thank you Lucie Sinkler! Whoever you are, I love that you used your brain while writing this pattern. The beauty of knitting is that you can do it in 3 dimensions. Don’t take that away from us you over-published template monkeys!