Here at last, these cute little crochet baby shoes, I just adore the teddy bear faces on them. They were really fun to make, well maybe a bit fiddly when it came to making the ears, but they are worth a bit of faffing wouldn’t you say?
Photo: Liv Cawston
You may remember I told you back in August about my colleague NG who was expecting her second child when I wrote about the Teddy Bear (thegrangerange.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/teddy-bear-for-a-baby-boy-from-lois-daykins-baby-crochet-book/). Well the expected little man has made his entrance to the world and is now the grand old age of 2 weeks. NG and son number one, Master R, brought Baby S into the office last week to see us, so sweet, so little, so sleepy.
Big brother Master R, was so excited as he proudly introduced little Baby S as my new sister! Well, he is only three and a half himself, bless.
Anyway back to these lovely little baby boots. I used the same as for the Teddy, Rico Soft Essentials Merino Aran from www.crafty-yarn.co.uk/shop/115/175/index.htm the delicate pale blue for the main bootee colour with beige for the face and paws and a touch of cream for the finishing touches.
I am definitely intrigued by baby shoes, you see so many fabulous designs from cute Baby Jane shoes to mock Wellies, Converse baseball styled boots and trainers.
I was a bit confused at first as other shoes that I have made have always started with the sole and worked up but with these you start at the top. By making a chain and joining to form a circle then working in rounds you create the boot cuff.Then you add the top of the boot, it looks like a big blue tongue at this stage.
Then you pick up and work in rounds again the form the sides, heel and toe.
That leaves the sole to do.
So with the sole completed and a line of cream trim around the top of the bootee it’s time to make the sweetest of Teddy Bear faces, their cuteness being the essential element for these baby feet treats.
Finally stitch the face onto the bootee, I actually applied the features before stitching on the face as it was easier to manage and gave a neat finish as any ends were tucked away.
Make another one to match and you have the cutest little Teddy Bear Bootees fit for a prince, or in this case Baby S.
Photo: Liv Cawston
This is my favourite photo of both Teddy and Booties taken by my lovely friend and photographer Liv, you can probably tell that she also took the image of the boots at the start of this post. I do my best with the photography but find it quite trying at times as I get shadows and dark patches or cannot get the composition to look on the image the way I had envisaged it in my head. I was struggling with this image when Liv just happened to pop round and quick as a flash (pardon the pun) it is done. You can see more of Liv’s work on her website www.livcawston.co.uk . Thank you Liv.
I have bought yarn recently from www.blacksheepwools.com/ the service is great with the order usually being delivered within a couple of days. Once I had bought from them I stated getting their regular emails including the usual offers etc but then this one came, a challenge to complete an unfinished project.
It provided me with just the push I needed to dig out a project that has been hiding in a carrier bag for years.
Here is my UFO story…….
Once when my children were younger we spent a wet and windy half term week learning to knit, with four of them it was quite a challenge and I was constantly helping to cast on, picking up dropped stitches and untangling their wool. Using oddments of leftover chunky yarn we made squares that I would turn into a blanket.
However, best laid plans and all that, the children are all now in their twenties and the squares? Well you may ask, they were still in a bag awaiting their transformation into the promised blanket. It was these squares that sprang to mind when I read Black Sheep UFO challenge, it spurred me on to dig them out of their hiding place in the loft and finally do what I originally intended.
I started by joining together all the squares that the children had made which as you can see formed a very uneven shape baring evidence of the dropped stitches I failed to catch and varied tensions employed by the little people all those years ago, but all these flaws simply add character.
Having joined all the squares together it was not quite big enough to qualify as a blanket so I knitted the long scarf shaped strips to go around the sides and finished it off with some cream edging.
Voila!
I added a second square over the front of one of the squares at the top of the blanket to form a pocket where bits and pieces can be placed such as little toys or a handkerchief. The contents of the pocket will serve to keep poorly or tired children entertained whilst on the sofa and snuggled beneath the blanket.
To explain, when my children were little we had what was affectionately called ‘the poorly blanket’, if they were ill and cuddled up on the sofa they would be draped with a special blanket. It had to be a particular blanket and in that wonderful way that children believe they really thought it had healing powers!
It is interesting that whilst I was finishing this UFO as my offspring visited they all remembered making the squares and expressed an affectionate interest in acquiring the finished blanket. We have agreed that this newly formed blanket will officially become our new family Poorly Blanket and will passed around as required. In the meantime it is just resting here.
Thank you Black Sheep for inspiring me to complete this long awaited project. Although it is not the best looking finish with all its uneven out of alignment squares and the loose stitches I have to confess it has brought back some lovely memories of crafting with my family when they were younger.
As you can see I have already been using some of it, I got busy with the blues first………………….
………………and made this lovely stack of squares for the outer edge of a baby blanket in cool minty blues and greens.
I wanted to mix things up a bit and as I love granny squares so much.
Then these little beauties for the centrepiece.
Here is how I joined them all together.
Now to get on with a matching one in Pinks!
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