The little one is now due any day and preparations are finally in full swing. Whenever I can take a break from panicking about the car seats and cots I try to get on with a few hand knit things for our newborn.
One really fun and quick project was a hat and bootie set.
For this set I used the Sublime baby cashmere merino silk yarn in DK weight (this is widely available in all good knitting stores. If you are in Chester then try Stash Fine Yarns at Sealand road) . This is my go to yarn for all baby knits. Gorgeous colours and wonderful to handle on the KnitPro rosewood needles.
I knit the hat on circulars rather than DPNs. KnitPro does a great 20 cm cable that can be used with short tips that provide a much better knitting angle than using the standard length tips. I only resorted to DPNs in the last few decrease rows. As for a pattern, I didn’t use one. I just used a simple few lines of drop stitch in contrast colours and kept the rest of the hat simple. I prefer simple colours on baby knits rather than anything complicated (unless of course it’s a intarsia dinosaur!).

The booties were adapted from Ravelry by Barabara Breiter

I made the string by making an I-cord and you can find a tutorial on that here my favourite site for very visually clear tutorials.
I added the mini pom-poms as every newborn should be dressed in something pompom to cheer them up (and their exhausted mums). There are some great mini pompom tutorials on YouTube made on forks
So here is what the set looks like

I can’t wait to see it on the new one really soon now. This set has already given me loads of ideas on some patterns for newborn hat and bootie sets. So look out for more patterns on my patterns page in the near future if you would like to knit a fast set either for your baby or as a fabulous baby shower present.