Heart Valentine's Day containers

Looking for a cute, easy, fun crochet pattern for Valentine’s Day? Look no further! This little heart shaped container is a perfect gift for your loved one, your Mom or Dad, sister or brother, co-worker, child care provider, teacher, boss, neighbor, mail carrier, dentist, etc. The list goes on and on. Who wouldn’t love getting a cute little crocheted heart filled with candies, love notes or flower petals?

End of foundation round

Here is the free crocheted heart container pattern. I used an H(5mm) hook and some worsted weight yarn in red, light pink, and white. This is a great stash buster pattern! Each heart uses such a small amount of yarn that you can make one in every color! I decided to make some for my niece’s child care providers last year. I figured, after they ate the candy inside, they could use the heart container as a ring holder, put it on their nightstand to hold chapstick, or hang it up in their classroom as a fun Valentine’s Day decoration!

About half-way through Round 1.

To start the pattern, I used a magic ring. If you haven’t figured out how to do this, I advise you to take the 10 minutes. It seriously won’t take you more than that. The link to the pattern also has a great video and pictures explaining it in great detail. This simple magic circle eliminates the large hole you see after starting a project like this. A magic circle is also the perfect way to start any stuffed animals or hats.

End of Round 2

End of Round 3.

If you wanted to, you could stop the pattern anywhere along these first couple of rounds and you would have a cute heart to use as a hair clip or an accessory on a hat. Or, you could make a bunch of hearts and string them together for a garland. The possibilities are endless!

Going in to the front loop in Round 4.

I altered the pattern slightly because I wanted the bottom to be flat instead of rounded. To do that, I did Round 4 only in the front loop. That creates a nice edge between the bottom and the sides.

This is how the  bottom looks when you crochet in the front loop of Round 4.
See how it is nice and flat? :)

Crocheting Round 5

A side view of Round 5

After crocheting the hearts, I wanted to add a little something to them to really make them pop. So, I found some pretty red, white, and pink patterned fabric pieces at JoAnn’s Fabric. 

I cut the fabric into a heart shape to fit inside the container. I used some tacky glue to glue the fabric to the bottom of the crocheted heart container and  let it dry for 24 hours.

Now it’s time to fill them with goodies! You can fill them with chocolates, conversation hearts, other Valentine’s Day candy, flower petals, or whatever your heart desires!

If you are looking for another fun Valentine’s Day crochet pattern, check out my adorable heart ear warmers blog post from last year. My niece, Emily, is modeling it in this picture.




No matter how you celebrate Valentine’s Day, make sure you give your loved ones a hug and let them know you love them. Life is too short to not tell people what they mean to you! Enjoy and happy crocheting! 

Non-slip toddler slippers

My niece, Sydney, loves to go out on our deck to see if the neighbor puppies are out in the yard, playing. She also is a great helper and likes to assist us in taking the garbage out.

Since it’s been getting a little cooler out, we needed to come up with a solution so Sydney’s toes don't get cold. I should preface this with the fact that Sydney hates socks. Despises them. They come off instantly. So, most of the time, when she joins us outside, she is barefoot. Well, in North Dakota, that only works for a short period of time in the summer.

Now that it is fall, it’s getting too chilly for her to be without socks. My husband suggested I make her some slippers that we can quickly slip on her feet. That way, we don’t have to hunt for socks and shoes every time.

After searching for a toddler slipper pattern, I stumbled across this super cute one on Pinterest. I have SO many good crochet patterns on my Pinterest board - check it out if you are looking for more patterns!

They are so adorable and they can be tightened because of the strip of yarn that goes around the entire shoe. So, if they are a little big (which I’d rather have than too small!), you can snug them up a bit until they grow into them a little more.

My sister-in-law picked out the gray and white colors and I got to work. These worked up super-fast – I had them done in one evening.

Notice that you go around your first chain when making
the sole of the shoe.

I have crocheted baby shoes before, so I kinda knew what I was doing. For some reason, the first time I crocheted shoes, it was SO hard. Now, I’ve made so many of them that they are all pretty easy.

For this pattern, I used a 3.75mm hook and two different kinds of yarn – Big Twist in white for the sole and Lion brand Wool-East in oxford grey for the body. Both are worsted weight yarn.

First off, crochet the sole. You’ll notice this part is done in the round (not using slip stitches and continuing around and around the whole outside).

Finished sole.

Then, when I got to the part where you switch to the main color, I decided to add one additional row into this pattern. I like a clear edge from where the sole of the shoe ends and the body begins. There are a lot of shoe patterns out there where the sole kinda melts into the body and it ends up being very rounded. I prefer the shoes to have a flat sole. So, in-between rows 5 and 6 of this pattern, I inserted this row: After switching to the main color, slip stitch in each stitch all the way around – LOOSELY. Then, when you start row 6, you will be crocheting into only that slip stitch, not the stitch under it from the previous row. This helps create a nicer, cleaner edge between the sole and body of the shoe.

Loose slip stitches in-between rows 5 and 6.

Continue on with the pattern until the top of the shoe is done and you are ready to work on the straps and toe flaps.

After doing the strap parts, I worked on the toe flap. Those were pretty simple to do. Lining them up so they were centered, I started stitching the toe flap onto the actual shoe.

After completing that, it is time to get out your strip of yarn that you will weave through the entire shoe.

Starting the toe flap section.

            

                              











As mentioned before, this is to help snug them up and keep them on. Crocheted slippers aren’t super well known for staying on all that well.

Stitching the toe flap section to the body of the shoe.

              

I used a yarn needle to weave the white yarn in and out of nearby stitches and all the way around the heel of the shoe back up to the front.


Go through both of the holes in the middle of the strap section and tie in a knot.

One final touch that I added to this project was a non-skid surface for the bottom. We have wooden floors and I knew if Sydney were to wear these crocheted slippers around the house, it would take about 3 seconds before she’d slip and slide and hurt herself on our wooden floors. I had heard about a product called PlastiDip and wondered if that would work for something like this.

Off to Fleet Farm I went. After searching all over in the paint section, I was not finding what I was looking for. I asked an employee for something that would help make a non-skid surface for a crochet project (I don’t recommend doing that, they look at you kinda strange), he was just as confused as I was. Finally, another guy came buy and after I explained what I was looking for, he knew right away that it was in the tool aisle.

Alas, there it was! One bottle of PlastiDip was just under $6. Not a bad price considering I only used a tiny bit of it.

I recommend spraying this in a well ventilated area – We put some paper towel on the damp grass and did it on our lawn. I used masking tape to tape off the edges where I wanted the non-skid surface to end and then taped some paper to that tape as well to protect the rest of the shoe from unwanted surfacing in case the wind took it.

After the first coat, I left the slippers in the garage to dry for about 45 minutes. Then, we did another coating and let that dry. Finally, one more coating and let it dry overnight. In the morning, I was pleasantly surprised that an initial test seemed to work – the bottom of the slippers weren’t going to slide on my wooden floor. 

The bottom of the slipper after the PlastiDip dried.

The PlastiDip is holding up quite well after a few weeks of wear. I might reapply another coat if needed.

Isn't she adorable?!

Enjoy these super fun slippers! My niece sure does! We leave them tied so that she just has to slip them on and off. She gets super excited when she sees Uncle Jon put his shoes on. She runs over to put her slippers on to join him. :)

Crocheted poncho

My adorable niece, Sydney, showing off her poncho. :)

It’s starting to get a little chilly out. Personally, I’m not complaining. I love the crisp cool air that comes with fall. I love the turning of the leaves. I love digging out my sweaters and boots. I love hot cocoa and snuggling under blankets. Can you tell fall is my favorite season? Too bad it’s so short in North Dakota. It usually doesn’t take long before the snow starts falling.

One of the new fashion trends for this fall includes ponchos. I wanted to try my hand at crocheting one and found the cutest pattern! 

Since the pattern is a bit small for me :), I decided to make it for my adorable niece, Sydney. The pattern is for older infants and younger toddlers. I adjusted the pattern slightly to fit her perfectly. 

This is a free pattern on the Lion brand website: https://www.lionbrand.com/crochet-pattern-baby-poncho-4.html

The pattern uses Lion brand Homespun yarn. I loved the beautiful gray and white neutral color called Clouds. 

It will go with anything yet has a slight variation with the two colors blending together. The yarn is super soft and fuzzy and machine washable and dryable – a must for toddlers!

I used a 9mm crochet hook and chained the first ones loosely like it is stated in the pattern.

I got by with only one skein of yarn but didn’t have much left and I only did 11 rounds instead of the 13 that is needed for the 2-3 yr old size. 

The end of Round One.

 My niece is 20 months old so I didn't need the extra couple of rounds for the larger size. If you are doing to do the 2-3 yr size, you will probably need 2 skeins of yarn.

You can start to see the corners forming.

Love the cozy look and
feel of this yarn!

Honestly, this poncho took me two days to finish, and that’s with a lot of other things going on in my busy schedule. With a large crochet hook and lots of double crochets worked into clusters, it works up quite fast.

I was a little worried that the finished product wouldn’t fit over my niece’s head but it fit perfectly. 

Close-up of the double crochet clusters. 

In fact, if I had crocheted it any looser, it would fall off her shoulders. If I had done the smaller infant size, I think I would have crocheted the initial chain a little tighter. 

Almost done with the body part of the poncho. Now would be a good time to start trying it on to see how long you want it.

The poncho part is finished - just the neck part is left!

Finished product!

Have fun jumping in a pile of leaves and sipping your hot cocoa! Stay tuned for a matching adult sized poncho pattern!

Mother's Day

Last weekend, it was Mother's day! If you are looking for a cute keepsake for Mom, here is a great, easy, relatively cheap project to do. I bought a 2-pack of thick 9x12 canvases from Hobby Lobby (woo hoo for 40% off coupons!). Pick a couple of colors of acrylic paint and buy one tube of each. I picked out a bright turquoise color for the background and white for the hand and footprints.  Overall, the entire project cost less than $10 and I’ll have two super cute gifts made by Sydney to give to her Mom and Grandma. The overall idea is to paint the word “Love” on the canvas with a hand print being the letter “o” and two footprints making the letter “v.”

Canvas, foam paint brush, and two tubes of acrylic paint

First step, prep your area with some newspapers or old magazines. I did a coat of turquoise paint on both canvases, including the sides. The first coat ends up being a little streaky looking, but that’s OK because you’ll go over it again with a second coat and that will even things out.



Give it an hour or so to dry completely and then give it another coat of paint. Keep in mind this is acrylic paint and is PERMANENT. Make sure you wash your hands right away afterwards with soap and water to remove any paint from your hands. Wear old clothes so you don’t have to worry about staining anything.

After the first coat of paint

The next step is a little tricky. You’ll need at least two people to tackle this job. I recruited Sydney’s super awesome child care providers. I also brought an old washrag to wash Sydney’s hands and feet.

With the white paint and a small paintbrush, paint one of the child’s hands and carefully make a hand print where the “o” in the word “Love” will be on your canvas. If you are making multiples canvases (like I am), do the other hand print right away since you already have the child’s hand messy! You will have to add more paint before doing the second print. Have one person hold onto the child’s wrist to prevent any hand flailing and paint flying. Hopefully, you’ll get a nice spread out hand print with the fingers clearly visible. Some younger children might have more of a blob looking print because they like to put their fingers into little fists.

After washing up the child’s hand, then it’s time to tackle the feet. Take off socks and shoes, roll up the child’s pants (or take them off completely) and have one person hold the child’s ankle still while the other person gently paints the child’s foot with white paint. Both teachers can help lift up the child and place the child’s footprint on the canvas. Then, do the other footprint to complete the letter “v.”

Painting the "L" and "e" on after the prints dried

Let both of these completely dry before tackling the “L” and “e.” I like to wait to do those two letters last in case the hand or footprints go crazy and end up not quite where you want them. With a thin brush, paint the “L” and “e” onto the canvas and let dry. You’re done! If you’d like, you can put the child’s name and year on the front (but at the very least, put it on the back) so you can remember when your child’s hand and feet were that small. 

Finished product!