I was recently approached by a friend, who wants to begin knitting booties for preemies in the hospital, and needed help with how to, well, actually knit them. Confronted by the fact that there might be unshod preemies out there because of a lack of bootie-making-awareness, I realized I had a duty to share my blueprint for booties. Well, that and a duty to get busy knitting some myself.

This is a photo tutorial, with a minimum of knitting terms. It is a blueprint to help you work with whatever yarn you have at hand to quickly craft a serviceable bootie. It is infinitely adaptable - anyone who wants to play around with adding lace, cables, or colours has a blank slate to do so. It requires no math, other than the ability to divide by three and to measure by eyeballing legs and feet.

The photo tutorial features a few twists and turns that may be informative for even expert knitters. I include a demonstration of a method of picking up stitches that hides the seam, even when picking up stitches on the wrong side.

It is knit from the top down entirely in one piece, with only one little seam up the back leg, and only 2 ends to weave in.