Choosing Your Materials

• Don't spend a fortune on alpaca or angora. They're baby soft, but they aren't easy to clean. Parents of small children don't need extra hand-washing chores. So choose a soft, machine-washable acrylic yarn in bright, baby-pleasing colors.
  
  Most patterns will call for sport weight or DK yarn, possibly worsted. Needle sizes tend to fall between U.S. 2 and 6 (2.75 to 5 mm), with the majority at the upper end of that range.
  
  

Creating a Pattern

• You can find free patterns on the Internet ranging from simple slippers to fanciful monster-toe booties. Or you can create your own unique baby booties. A close examination of the two patterns included in the Resources section below not only reveals two basic methods of construction, but also some of the considerations you should keep in mind when designing infant footwear.
  
  

Bottom-seam Slippers

• Quick and EZ on the needles then ready to sew.
  
  To work the "Quick and EZ" pattern, you knit across the sole and up the sides of the leg and foot. Then you fold the cloth and sew two seams, one along the top of the foot and the other up the back of the heel. A very few decrease stitches create a toe.
  
  The width of the cuff section of this pattern equals about half the length of the entire foot. Those are useful proportions to keep in mind when creating your own baby booties.
  
  

Top-seam Slippers

• Sue's slippers on the needle then ready to sew.
  
  In the "Sue's Knit Baby Slippers" pattern, you knit primarily across the top of the foot. Some initial increases followed by a series of decreases shapes the toe. When you fold the resulting panel, the edges meet in a seam that runs along the center of the sole and up the back of the leg.
  
  Babies are notorious for kicking off their socks and booties almost as soon as their parents put them on. Sue's pattern addresses this by including a double-rib cuff whose elasticity should help keep the slipper on. A crocheted ankle ribbon woven through the ribbing assists further.
  
  In both patterns, by knitting on both sides of the fabric you create a corrugated garter-stitch that's thick and cushioned. It efficiently insulates the baby's foot against the cold.