Many mothers have faced such a situation when they want to knit something for their child with their own hands, but there is not enough time, and most often experience. And it also happens that you want to please your new parents with your handmade gift, and you have only one evening to prepare. Or: you are going to start knitting clothes for sale and want to accumulate a certain amount of goods as quickly as possible. In any of these cases, the speed and simplicity of manufacturing the product is important, of course, without losses to the quality of the product. Having faced all the situations described above in my life, I have already had a chance to learn some lessons from them, and I would like to share my experience with other knitting lovers. On the site you will find many schemes and options for crocheting a poncho.
One of the very first and necessary wardrobe items for newborns, of course, are baby booties. It is on the example of this thing that we will consider the problems of speed and productivity of knitting (many women prefer this tool).
So, what points do you need to pay attention to?
Content
7 tips for knitting a baby bootie:
1. A cozy workplace and some time.
If you do not get distracted while knitting, then, of course, the work will be done faster, and there are fewer mistakes. For the part of the product that requires increased attention (for example, counting stitches), devote more time so as not to redo it.
2. Quality, type and thickness of yarn.
In order for the product to be knitted faster and for it to have a neat appearance, you need to choose the right material. Very easy to use children's yarn made of acrylic or microfiber (exactly children's, check the information on the label!). Compared to natural wool, it has a number of advantages: it is less whimsical in care, easy to wash, looks new for a long time and holds its shape, is pleasant to the touch, does not prick. You can also choose semi-wool fibers, they also have high qualities. But mohair yarn is not suitable for these purposes: it has such a property - to get tangled during knitting. That is, if you make a mistake with the pattern, then it may not be possible to unravel it. You will spend a lot of time and spoil the yarn.
It is logical that the thickness of the yarn is also very important: the thicker the thread, the faster the product is knitted. However, booties made of very thick yarn will be useless for the baby in the hot summer, so a universal option would be yarn with a length/weight ratio of about 100 g / 250-300 m.
3. Stock of material.
It will be a very unpleasant surprise if you do not have enough yarn to complete the work. Therefore, it should always be in abundance. To knit booties, however, you need a little yarn, even leftovers from skeins will do. On average, I spend 20-24 g on a couple of booties.
In addition, you also need finishing materials if you want to decorate the work. The simplest decoration is a ribbon instead of a lace. It immediately gives the product a finished, neat look, and requires very little time: you just need to measure two segments of about 40 cm, treat the edges with the fire of a match or a lighter (so that it does not unravel) and pull it into the bootie. Other decorations can be beads, buttons, but they can be dangerous for a child, and if you use them, be sure to fasten them securely!
4. Tools.
If you have to knit something urgently, then you should always have knitting needles at hand to make the product, a hook for finishing and sewing (if there is no needle), a needle with a large eye - it is much faster and more convenient to sew products than a crochet. The optimal size of needles for the above yarn is 3-3.5 mm, the hook is 2.5-3 mm. If you knit loosely, thick needles can make the product look sloppy. And vice versa, too tight knitting with thin needles slows down the work and again affects the appearance of booties.
5. Pattern for knitting.
It's very simple - the simpler it is, the faster it is knitted. The first booties that I made at school during labor lessons were made with garter knitting. All you had to know was to knit purl and knit stitches, make a crochet and knit two stitches together in the most usual way. For beginners, the simplicity of the product is important, there is no need to waste time looking for schemes and making complex patterns. For the more experienced, it is the speed of knitting, because knitting with a garter stitch or other patterns where only knit/purl stitches are used is the easiest and fastest thing you can think of.
So, from personal experience: hosiery and garter stitch, 1x1 or 2x2 elastic band, any other alternation of knit and purl rows are knitted the fastest. You can choose other patterns, but let me remind you that our goal now is to save time.
6. Use of multiple colors.
The fabric is knitted faster with one type of yarn. The use of two or more colors requires the cost of tying/cutting threads, sealing excess ends. In this case, melange yarn (multicolored) wins. Using one skein, you can create a multi-colored product without the mentioned time investment, and by the way, with some material savings.
7. And of course, the model of booties
Again, everything is logical: the simpler, the faster. From personal experience, I will say: I spend the least time knitting marshmallow booties (on two needles). The essence of the model is that they are made of a single canvas, which is very easy to give the desired shape (below I will tell you how). And they look very beautiful.
Other booties, such as dog booties, take about 20% longer to knit (again, from personal experience). The reason is a more voluminous product, partial knitting is necessary (frequent turning of the fabric back and forth also takes time if every minute counts).
You should also abandon any schemes where more complex operations are required (the use of an additional needle, the use of circular needles, the movement of loops, a large number of seams in the product, etc.) - this is immediately noticeable from the description of booties.
These are the basic tips for speeding up knitting. And now I will show you that "in a hurry" you can make very cute booties!
As I mentioned, these are marshmallow booties. What you need to do:
1. Knit the canvas: take 25 stitches and knit with garter stitch (all stitches are knit) You need to knit 11 cm long (photo 1). Believe me, it's fast.
2. Then close 12 stitches (photo 2) and knit the same garter stitch for about 13-14 cm. In total, the length of the canvas should be 24-25 cm - this is for children from 0 to 3 months old (photo 3).
3. Close the loops, immediately sewing with a crochet with the beginning of the canvas (again saving time) as shown in photos 4 and 5.
4. Sew the sole with the most ordinary seam (photo 6).
5. Collect the cape into a ring with a thread, tie it, hide the ends (photo 6).
6. Take a ribbon (about 40 cm long, 0.5-1 cm wide), pull it into the needle (if it is not available, all operations are carried out with a hook, but it takes longer). Sew the upper part of the booties (photo 7). Go to the cape, thread the ribbon a couple of times on the left and right through the cape (as if we are lacing sneakers). Tie a bow. By changing the length of the free ends, you can adjust the bootie to the leg.
7. Do all the points with the second bootie, and here they are ready (main photo)!
8. It takes me no more than 2.5 hours, although I don't knit that fast.
I hope my advice will be useful to you. Good luck!