Nana’s Bubble Baby Booties
My grandmother, affectionally known as “Nana” was a Master Knitter. She was always knitting, and could knit anything. She taught knitting, she knit for people and she was notorious for taking professionally knitted garments copying them and knitting them.
One of the more notable items my grandmother was famous for was her Booties. I have affectionally named them “Nana’s Bubble Booties”. She could knit a pair of booties in a few hours. She knit them by the dozens and they were in big demand at the “Knit and Needle” Shop where she worked part time after retiring, in Spokane Washington where she lived. It was “busy” work for her, people loved them and bought them mostly as shower gifts for newborns.
I grew up believing that my grandmother had created this pattern. Nobody was privy to the pattern. She held it close to her chest. It wasn’t until after her death and even years after that that I finally got my hand on the infamous handwritten mostly short hand noted bootie pattern. People asked for it, but she wouldn’t part with it. It wasn’t until she was well into her 90’s that, to the behest of my mom, my sister and myself, we discovered she had given the bootie pattern to my moms best friend Vern, whom like my grandmother, treated it as if it were a rare diamond and wouldn’t even give it to my mom. Eventually, the prized secret bootie pattern, turned up in my moms pile of inherited knitting belongings and I eventually was given a photo copy of it.
You can only imagine, the shock and confusion that coursed through my veins and swirled through my brain when, at a yarn show in San Diego, that I happened upon while attending another event; I saw a pair of booties, exactly like the ones my Nana made, hanging on display by a stranger. I nervously paced back and forth, eyeing the booties trying to sort this out and finally gathered the courage to confront the booth owner about the booties. I blurted out in an accusatory tone, “where did you get that bootie pattern?” Quite taken aback by my manner of questioning, the Booth owner replied, The pattern is on the Internet. Google “Christine’s Booties”.
And so I did. As soon as I returned home, I google Christine’s Booties and there it was. A Bootie pattern not exactly but almost exactly like the one my grandmother had knit. Christine, like my Nana had kept her bootie pattern a secret until her daughter decided to have it printed in a knitting magazine “Threads”. Or so her story goes. Of course my first reaction was, who stole the pattern from who? Did my Nana steal it from Christine? Did Christine steal it from my Nana? Christine lived in California, my grandmother lived in Washington State. Both wrote their patterns before the internet. Up until the threads magazine publication, neither had ever publicly published their pattern. Could both of them have come up with the same boxed shaped bubble bootie pattern?
Do you remember I told you in the beginner that my grandmother could take any knitted garment and copy it and knit it? I have proof of that in a sweater my grandmother knit for me when I was a teenager. I coveted this very expensive sweater in a high end department store near where I lived. My mother bought the sweater, brought it home, my grandmother wrote out the pattern, then my mom returned the sweater and my grandmother knitted it and presented it to me for my Birthday.
Before retiring, my grandmother worked as a Merchandise Buyer for the Bon Marche in Spokane Washington. She traveled to various Buyer shows around the US a few times a year. While we will never know the true story behind the duplicate bootie patterns, my guess is, my grandmother on one of her travels saw the booties, copied the pattern, tweaked it a bit and made it her own. Nana embellished the pattern by adding the bubbles to the top and up the ankle. That was the original pattern Nana used to make the popular booties she sold at the Knit and Needle Shop.
I realized recently that, when I die, Nana’s bootie pattern dies with me. Because as far as I know, I am the only living soul on the earth that has her pattern and knits it. So, I decided I would write it out so people could actually read it and knit from the pattern. I am not a pattern writer so there may be mistakes but to the best of my knowledge you should be able to figure it out. Good Luck.
How to knit The bubble baby booties
Materials:
Needles: 5/ size 3mm or 4mm needles
Yarn: Sport weight. This pattern knits best in a wool or acrylic yarn. avoid silky yarns to keep the shape.
Sole
Using a provisional cast on,
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp235zEZEkQ)
CO 10 Stitches (This becomes needle 1)
Slip the first stich of each row. These will become the side stitches.
Row 1: K
Row 2: K
Row 3-36 Repeat rows 1 & 2
Sides
Needle 2, pick up 18 stitches on first long side
Needle 3, using the provisional stitches pick up 10 stitches on end
Needle 4, pick up 18 stitches on remaining long side
Remove the scrap yarn used in the provisional cast on
Knitting in the round on 4 needles, mark the beginning of the round and knit as follows
Rows 1-4: Purl
Rows 5-8: Knit
Rows 9-12: P
Rows 13-16: K
Rows 17-19: P
(The 20th row sets up the instep)
Row 20: Purl to last 9 stitches, slip 9th stitch to side needle, knit 2 tog off the side needle leaving 17 stitches on the side needle and 10 remaining on the front needle.
Instep:
working on front needle (10 stitches)
Row 1. Turn and Purl to last 9 stitches slip 9th st to side needle, purl 2 tog. turn
Row 2. Knit 9 stitches, slip 9th st to side needle, knit 2 together. Turn
Repeat rows 1 & 2 two more times until you have 4 (knit)rows.
Row 5. Turn and Knit to last 9 stitches slip 9th st to side needle, knit 2 tog. turn
Row 6. Purl 9 stitches, slip 9th st to side needle, Purl 2 together. Turn
Repeat rows 5 & 6 two more times until you have 4 (purl) rows.
Row 9. Turn and Purl to last 9 stitches slip 9th st to side needle, purl 2 tog. turn
Row 10. Knit 9 stitches, slip 9th st to side needle knit 2 tog. Turn
Repeat rows 9 & 10 two more times until you have 4 (knit) rows.
Row 11. Turn and Knit to last 9 stitches slip 9th st to side needle, knit 2 tog. turn
Row 12. Purl 9 stitches, slip first stitch of needle 2 onto needle one and Purl 2 together. Turn
Repeat rows 11 & 12 two more times until you have 4 (purl) rows.
There should be 10 stitches remaining on all 4 needles.
Bootie Top
Rows 1-3 *K1, P1* repeat to end of round
Row 4, *K1, P1, YO K 2 tog* repeat to end of round.
Repeat row 1-3
Row 8-11 Purl
Row 12-15 Knit
Row 16-19 Purl
Bind off
Make a tie or use a ribbon for bootie lace.
Here is a video on how to crochet an easy yet nice looking iChord
Off The Lamb 