Baby Shoe-Socks
(Posted by mannie on KP)
Machine:Standard-gauge
Yarn:“1” SUPER FINE - Sock, Fingering, Baby (US); 4-Ply (UK, Australia and New Zealand)
Tension:
Size:Numbers given in parentheses below can be changed for different sizes, different yarn, etc., but this should produce something suitable for a 6-month old. They are quite quick to do, so experiment.
Many people have asked for a pattern. This is the way I have been making baby sock shoes, pictured in my earlier posts about sock yarn and baby socks. The first one I made was following someone else's published pattern so I couldn't share it, but by now it has evolved to be nothing like the original, and it is based on a generic technique that is freely available, and there are so many pictures online of something similar that I hope I won't be infringing anyone's copyright by sharing my notes.
If you don't already know how to short row for heel and toe shaping, there are lots of guides and videos freely available online.
No patterning is needed, although you could easily add Fair-Isle to the top of foot, or the ankle or cuff if you have a patterning machine.
Directions:
Cast on in Waste Yarn over half the total number of stitches (20) and knit a few rows.
Change to shoe yarn (whatever yarn you are using for the shoe part) and knit 1 row.
Start heel short-rowing down to about 1/3 of the stitches left in work; then increase again until all stitches are in work
.
Knit the underside of foot (26 rows).
Make the toe - exactly the same as the heel.
Everything up until now has been in shoe yarn, the sock yarn features in this next section.
Knit the top of the foot – the same number of rows as the underside (26) but divide it into 3 parts: the front of the shoe in shoe yarn (9) the sock yarn (13) and the ankle strap(4) in shoe yarn.
Total (26).
You can vary these, for more or less shoe, more or less sock, narrower or wider ankle strap, or two straps, but they should add up to the same number of rows as the underside.
(From my picture examples, the pink ballet shoes have no shoe yarn at the front or ankle strap, it is all sock yarn after the toe shaping. But the red ones have 8, 14 and 4 rows. The brown "boots" carry on with shoe yarn for the whole of the top of the foot, and for the first 16 rows of ankle. The black row on the heel was the first row knitted. Then I knitted the first part of the heel shaping in brown, the second part (increases) in black, and the foot and first half of the toe shaping in black, then the rest in brown.)
After the top of the foot is knitted, put the heel stitches from the original Waste Yarn on the machine, wrong side facing you, right next to your working needles (40 stitches). If you put them to the left for the first sock and to the right for the second, you will get the long seam on opposite sides for each sock.
You are finished with shoe yarn now. Continue in sock yarn for however long you want the top to be (about 20 rows for an ankle sock, plus the top or cuff).
The cuff can be anything you like - a few rows of garter stitch (using the garter bar to turn the work each row, as in the sparkly red shoe); mock rib; real rib; latched-up rib; a hem; or a picot hem(ballet shoe) as you please. The boot and T-bar shoe have a latched-up rib, with every 3rd stitch being unraveled for 6 rows then latched up.
Making up (Finishing):
With right sides together, sew up the short foot seam and the long foot-leg seam, and mattress-stitch the cuff.
You can add a securely-sewn little button to the ankle strap, or a few stitches to suggest a button or buckle. Look for knitted baby socks on Google images and you will be swamped with ideas.
Additional features:
For the brown boots, I added eyelet holes in pairs on the front and top section for threading "laces" through.
I also added some fluffy yarn at the change from boot yarn to sock yarn. This wouldn't knit, so I took the work off on the garter bar, e-wrapped the fluffy yarn around the needles, put the work back, and knitted the row with the sock yarn.
The ballet shoes have a length of ribbon added which could be tied around the ankle. This may not be a good idea for a young baby, but a toddler might like it. My own two daughters adored their little pink ballet slippers as toddlers.
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The T-bar on the other little shoe was fiddly to do, but I like the look. I did it like this (but would welcome an easier way):
At the point when I started knitting the sock yarn, I took the central 4 stitches onto Waste Yarn and put those needles out of work. I knitted 10 rows in sock yarn, producing 10 long floats between the 2 sets of stitches. Then I knitted those off to Waste Yarn and put the central 4 back on the needles. I knitted 10 rows in shoe yarn, picking up the floats with a transfer tool, and pulling the needles right forward so the floats did not get knitted through to the front. Finally I put the other stitches back on the needles,then carried on knitting I suppose. Intarsia might have been easier, I'll try that next time, or even Swiss Darning or an extra bit knitted on. So many possibilities!
This could be adapted in so many ways. If you make some, I'd love to see a picture.
Please feel free to ask if you don't understand something.
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