Are you interested in crocheting quick, easy projects for babies? Perhaps you have a new baby (or a grandson, granddaughter, niece or nephew) on the way. Or maybe you like to make your own baby shower gifts, or you enjoy crocheting for charity. If you’re in need of baby patterns for any reason, Infant Boots and Hats: 6 Charming Sets is a crochet pattern book you’ll definitely want to consider adding to your pattern stash.

What You Need to Know About This Crochet Pattern Book:

Author: Kristi Simpson


Publisher: Leisure Arts


Copyright Date: 2018


ISBN 13: 978-1464771750


Book Formats:


This book is available in the following format(s):

• Softcover Booklet With Staple Binding; This is the version of the book that I’m reviewing; it is a lovely, high-quality format, with pretty color photos and nice paper quality. This format is available from Amazon and from numerous other retailers.
• Digital download: Kindle e-book edition, available exclusively from Amazon.

Number of Pages: 48


Skill Level: These baby booties and hats are all rated as easy crochet patterns. I’d recommend them to confident beginners who have mastered all the basic crochet stitches and have completed at least one simple project like a granny square.

Crochet Projects Included in This Book:

There are 6 baby hats and 6 matching pairs of baby booties included in this book. All these projects are crocheted using medium weight yarn. There are two sizes for each footwear pattern: Small (2 inches wide by 3 inches long) and Medium (2 by 3.5 inches). The hat patterns are all sized to fit a 16” head circumference. The patterns included in the book are as follows:

Casual Boots and Hat

When my niece saw this book, she begged me to make her the boots from this set. She LOVES them! She is super picky about what she wears, so her “thumbs up” to this design is meaningful.

These accessories look like they would be super interesting projects to work on, and it also looks like they would be totally practical wardrobe additions for keeping your baby warm and cozy.

Casual Loafers and Hat

Hand-sewn stitches and a button tab add interest to these casual pieces. As pictured, the tan and blue colorway is perfect for baby boys. If you’re expecting a baby girl, a quick color change from blue to pink, red, peach or purple would make this design girl-friendly. If you aren’t sure whether it’s a boy or a girl, a red, burgundy or green yarn would be a nice accent color in place of the blue.

High-Top Moccasins and Hat

I’m not sure why it is that pregnant women cry so easily; and why it is that so often, the flood of tears will be prompted by the sight of cute baby layette pieces. BUT, if you’re pregnant and bursting into tears right now after looking at these little cuties, please know that is totally normal.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about these ADORABLE little moccasins. Didn’t your heart just melt when you saw them?

They are so cute exactly as pictured! But, if you know me at all, you know I can’t resist a good craft experiment — for some reason I just can’t manage to leave well enough alone. Somewhere in my stash, most likely in storage at my uncle’s place, I have some scraps of faux suede fabric. I am DYING to try cutting it into strips and using it as the fringe to decorate a pair of these little booties. If that doesn’t work out, I think the next thing I’d try would be using wildly textured crimped or boucle yarn. I just added these ideas to my to-do list, and will hopefully update sometime in the future to let you know how they work out.

This colorway is super cute as is; but if you know for sure you’re expecting a girl, you could make this design look “girlier” by replacing the turquoise accent with a vibrant pink. OR you could leave all the accent colors exactly as is, but use pink as the main color instead of gray. That would be so pretty!

Lacy Cuff Boots and Hat

Out of the 6 sets included in this book, this is the only one that’s overtly “girly”. The colorway pictured is feminine and sooooo pretty. You could recolor the pattern if you like, but I don’t think there’s any colorway that could make this design look boy friendly; it’s going to look pretty no matter what colors you make it in.

High-Top Sneakers and Hat

The colorway for this baby set is nice exactly as pictured. However, if baby’s mom and dad are sports fans, this cute set is just begging to be crocheted in their favorite team’s colors.

Sporty Sneakers and Hat

Could this little hat be any cuter?

No. No, it couldn’t.

The colorway pictured in the book is a calm one, with gray being the predominant color. There are accents of bright peach and white yarn. You could recolor this design in about a zillion different ways. If you’re sure you’re having a girl, the colorway pictured is perfect — or you could go totally girly, replacing the gray yarn with a light pink one, leaving the white yarn as is and changing the peach yarn to a much darker pink.

If you aren’t sure whether it’s a girl or a boy, you could change the peach yarn to red or green for a totally unisex look.

If it’s definitely a boy, changing the peach yarn to blue, turquoise or navy blue would be a no-brainer. You could also go with a darker orange, which would be sporty and cool looking.

The Best Things About This Book

These patterns are all super adorable!

5 of the 6 sets in this book are unisex designs, which makes this book an amazing value whether you’re expecting a baby girl or a baby boy.

This book is a fantastic buy if you have a big family, a close-knit neighborhood, or a lot of friends of childbearing age — because these designs are all excellent baby shower gifts. This is a book you’d want to reach for when you need to come up with a gift quickly.

The designs in this book are all practical and wearable. They all look usable to me; I think all of these designs would be appealing to the vast majority of crocheters. You could make every single one of them, perhaps even multiple times.

The sizing in this book is clear and straightforward — which is an important reason you might want to choose this book instead of other competing titles. This is especially true if you’re crocheting for a baby who’s already several months old. I’ve passed on working bunches of other baby bootie patterns because I couldn’t figure out whether the finished booties would actually fit my niece’s feet. That’s not an issue with this book.

At the time my niece made the request for me to make her the boots from the casual hat and boot set, I definitely appreciated the clear sizing information given in this pattern book; I measured her feet, compared the measurements against the pattern sizes given, and quickly, easily concluded that she is too big for these boots (which is no surprise; this is a book of infant patterns, and she’s 2 years old.) But still, I think it’s a good selling point for this book that a little one who is barely out of babyhood loves this pattern so much.

This booklet’s small size makes it ideal for taking with you if you crochet in places other than your home; it’ll fit in a purse, diaper bag, glove compartment, desk drawer or project bag easily. (Of course, the digital editions take up ZERO space, so keep those in mind if lack of physical space is an important consideration for you.)

This booklet was made in the USA.

Other Observations About This Book

There’s a fantastic variety of baby bootie patterns in this book; each pair is significantly different from the others. The baby hat patterns aren’t all as dramatically different; they’re all beanies. If you want to crochet easy baby beanies plus matching baby booties, you just hit the jackpot! This is exactly the book you want.

As far as baby beanie patterns go, this is a really nice variety of them. The bands and the styling on these beanies are all different and interesting. But if you were hoping for a variety of hat styles like berets, bonnets, floppy sun hats, cloches and toques, this is not the book for that. If you’re expecting a girl, and you want to crochet a really creative variety of baby hat styles, try Darla Sims’ Dressing Up Baby (one of my favorite baby pattern books).

If you’re expecting a baby boy, the book you’re looking at — Infant Boots & Hats — is one of the best values on the market that I’m aware of for hat and bootie patterns. Right now, beanies are the top trendy hat style for boys and older guys, so you really can’t go wrong by making multiple beanies for your little guy.

As I mentioned above, my opinion is that 5 of the 6 patterns in this book are boy friendly. That’s better than average; most of the baby pattern books I’ve looked at include more girl-friendly patterns than boy-friendly ones. Even if you’re expecting a boy, having a pattern book with a girl’s pattern isn’t a bad idea, because you’re likely to be able to use the “girly” pattern for shower gifts when your friends or family members give birth to girls. So, bottom line, whether your new arrival is a boy or a girl, this is a book you’re likely to find usable.

The instructions in this book are presented in the format of written text instructions with multiple color photographs for each set. There are no symbol crochet charts, and the compact format of this booklet does not allow for expansive step-by-step photo tutorials. Line art illustrations are included where needed to explain special stitches or other important details. In the back of the book, you’ll find helpful information about the crochet techniques needed for succeeding with these patterns.

I think this book is ideal for new crocheters, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to a confident beginner; but it’s important for you to be aware that this book will not teach you how to crochet. If your crochet skills are rusty or non-existent, check out our list of the best books for beginners for suggestions on introductory crochet manuals that will teach you everything you need to know. You’re also welcome to make use of our (mostly free) crochet tutorials for beginners, which can help you get started with the basic stitches and techniques you’ll need to know to succeed with working the patterns in this booklet.

Conclusion

I’m delighted to recommend this book to other crochet enthusiasts.

Where to Buy Infant Boots and Hats: 6 Charming Sets by Kristi Simpson:

• Click here to shop for this book at Amazon.com.
• Click here to download the Kindle E-book Edition of this book.

Similar Crochet Books and Related Resources

This book is included on our list of best baby crochet patterns and our list of best crochet hat patterns.

Posted By: Amy Solovay

This page was last updated on 10-1-2022.