PHB Prep: Little Shoes

When I was younger I learnt how to knit. Just the one way: needle in, wool around, needle through, stitch off. Mum wrote those instructions on a little square of paper for me and I knitted my first peggy square at age 5. Sure, there were holes and added stitches, but boy was I proud!

Two decades later I'd barely done any knitting, but still retained the little square of paper as a memory.

I decided to try my hand at knitting again. I tried to learn to purl. Fail.

I learnt how to cast on, but was doing it wrong so my cast-ons were terribly loopy.

Thanks to the patient minds and clever hands of mum, my aunty and my cousin's wife, I relearnt how to knit, then I learnt how to purl, and started creating a bit more. Scarves were my staple creative diet.

Then motherhood came. Beanies were made, I even managed to make most of a 3-6mo sized cardigan (shock! horror!) which my mother-in-law finished off for me. Gotta love nimble fingers when I'm a verrrry slow knitter...

When I started thinking of PHB I remembered that my sister a) had told me that "anyone can knit booties" and b) owned the most delicious hard-cover spiral-bound book called 50 baby bootees to knit by Zoe Mellor. I'd marked half a dozen pages with little boots, slippers and funny footwear to put in my order for my the wee guy 2 years earlier but as my super-busy sister hadn't quite finished any I thought I might just try my hand at knitting booties. (I know the spelling's different... I like it my way!)

WELL I have since knitted at least half a dozen pairs, gifted two to friends' daughters and put some aside for PHB. Pictured is my favourite pattern - some simple contrast-edged slippers that I've made the most pairs of. I used some alpaca-virgin-blend wool and edged it with 12-ply felted lambswool. They're deliciously soft and are a beautiful deep brown, and although the wool sheds a bit it was sooo lovely to work with.

More soon.