Ruffles and owls

I found a couple of really cute and fun crochet patterns online and I knew right away I had to work them up!!  I've never done baby booties before so I figured it would be a fun project to tackle...not too big and not too terribly difficult I was hoping.  The first pattern I fell in love with, is the Ruffled Baby Bootie pattern from B.hooked. (http://www.bhookedcrochet.com/2015/03/21/crochet-ruffled-baby-booties/)  Awesome thing, I had some Red Heart Unforgettable left over from another project so I had the proper yarn for the project without having to go out and buy some!!  (granted, I would NOT have minded a trip to Hobby Lobby or Michael's...it's just a little harder when you're bringing little people with you!)  The pattern from B.hooked was not only well written, it also included a great video tutorial that walks you through the whole pattern if need be.  I will say at first I was a little intimidated by the pattern because of the front double post decreases but the video is WONDERFUL and shows just how to do it!!  Attaching the ruffled part of the bootie becomes pretty mindless and really is pretty foolproof.  Here's how mine turned out:

Fiesta Booties

Lake Walk Booties

I think they turned out SO CUTE!!!!  I have the 2 pictured up for sale on my Etsy page (https://www.etsy.com/shop/bluedaisycrochet) for those who don't know how to crochet or lack the time to do it!

Next up, OWL BOOTIES!  Owls are so in right now...and why not??  They are super cute!  I found a great pattern done by Hopeful Honey (http://www.hopefulhoney.com/2015/08/owl-baby-booties-crochet-pattern.html).  Another great tutorial and although it has a few fussy steps, they are actually quite easy to work up.  I didn't have and DK weight yarn laying around so I made mine out of worsted weight so they ended up being a little bigger than 0-3 months...closer to 9-12 I think.  It's so hard to size them because some kids have tiny little ballerina feet and then others have HUGE feet.  Two out of three of my kiddos had big feet...not so much long as chubby so finding shoes for them was always difficult.  I really wish I would have known about making shoes for them when they were babies.  Something to help keep their socks on and their little feet warm but at the same time still soft and comfortable.  Here's how my Owl Booties ended up:

Owl Booties

Little grippies on the bottom

After I made the owl booties, I was thinking yarn on smooth surface floors would be kind of slippery for new walkers, which I think is who these booties will fit.  So I did some investigating and found this great post on Moogly Blog (http://www.mooglyblog.com/make-slippers-non-slip/) on how to make grips on the bottom of slippers.  I had some puffy paint left over from a t-shirt project last summer so I gave it a go and it worked out fantastically!!  My only thought is next time I will do lines instead of dots because the dots were hard to get even.  Sometimes a lot of paint would poop out of the nozzle and other times barely any would come out.  (these are also available on my Etsy page)

All in all, this was another win in the Pinterest category...since I found the links to the patterns on Pinterest.  :)

Goodnight and talk to you later crafters!