Māhuri; is the Māori word for sapling. Baby legs will grow into the tree trunks that root them to the earth, but they begin as tiny saplings that need to be kept warm at night. Nights are chilly in New Zealand homes, and it’s so hard to keep socks on baby feet. These footed leggings fit snugly, so you can put pajamas on top. For maximum warmth, I recommend knitting them in 100% wool (superwash, please, if you’re knitting for new parents, because who has time to hand wash with a small baby?) I’ve used every size of these with my two babies, and they’ve really made a difference in keeping their little legs warm!

This pattern was inspired by Shannon Passmore’s excellent Ultimate Longies pattern. I highly recommend purchasing her pattern, it might be the most useful pattern I’ve ever bought, with all sorts of variations, and sizes worked out in a variety of yarn weights.

A word of caution: this is a somewhat challenging pattern. It’s not that you can’t knit it while watching TV (trust me, you can). It’s not even that any of the techniques used are particularly complicated. There are just a lot of techniques used. If you’ve ever knitted a sock, you’ll be fine. If you’ve only knitted a plain scarf in worsted weight yarn on larger needles, you might struggle. Here’s a taste of the skills you’ll need to know or learn:

• Knitting in the round on smaller needles with fingering-weight wool

• Tubular cast on (tutorial link included, but any tubular technique you can do in the round will work well)

• Grafting (Kitchener stitch)

• Short row shaping (this is the big one, it’s used for both the bum and the toe)