Baby’s First Crocheted Outfit – The Beginner’s Guide

I’m under no illusions that I’m an expert at crochet. In fact, most DIY things I’m able to teach myself with no problem, but I had to find myself a teacher when it came to crochet basics! At this point I can do most of the basic stitches, though I admittedly need to look up how-tos constantly just to remind myself which stitch is which 🤦‍♀️

Even with my meager skills, this set of baby clothes didn’t take me too long and they came out beautifully! Since ya’ll don’t need a muddled-though how-to by a novice, I’m just going to share the tutorial videos I used because I’m sure you’ll find them as wonderful as I did!

Diaper Cover

I started with the diaper cover. Crocheter LovinglyNie is clear and goes slowly. Bonus – the entire pattern is also written out in the caption under the video which I love because once I get my groove on I can just reference the pattern for quick stitch number reminders. The most difficult part was the very end, crocheting around the whole diaper because I struggled to determine which holes I should be stitching into, but I muddled through it and I’m glad I did!

Scratch Mitts

The scratch mitts were next for which I used the tutorial by Last Minute Laura. She is super personable to listen to and is very clear. I love that this pattern was so simple I could almost make the second mitt without even referencing the video again! (Almost)

Beanie/Hat

I started drooling when I found this pattern at Sewrella! There’s a video and written patterns for hats of all sizes! I whipped this out so fast, I may just make myself a matching beanie!

Booties

The booties were super daunting for me which is why I put them off until the end, but honestly I was shocked by how easy they were! I used this video by Croby Patterns and I just discovered that there’s a link under the video for the written pattern! I didn’t even notice when I was making the booties because this tutorial was the absolute perfect speed to work with – slow enough that I could work with it simultaneously yet quick enough that I didn’t feel frustrated with wanting to get onto the next step.

Do you think she knows she’s about to have some competition?

I hope you guys enjoy these tutorials as much as I did! I’ll be checking these guys out next time I’m in need of a new crocheting pattern.

Warmly,

EGinny

The Most Useless LED Light Up Rug

This pin on Pinterest had me completely starry-eyed:

Sooo pretty, right??

I needed to make one.

Then I found out that chunky yarn is crazy expensive so I put the idea on hold until…

A SALE! My favorite thing. Michaels Craft Stores aren’t always the cheapest places, but they have some amazing sales and if you use their app with their coupons, you’re set. I picked up a couple skeins of chunky grey yarn, ordered me a rope of LEDs, and I was off!

Now, when I was on the dating scene, every guy I met I immediately saw red flags and ran – I was good at seeing red flags in men. But when I want to diy and I see red flags? My ability to ignore potential problems goes through the roof.

RED FLAG #1: Everywhere I read about this rug, people said not to walk on it! Heck, even the seller in the affiliate link from the diy page where I got my inspiration said not to walk on them!

Reddest. Red flag. Ever.

RED FLAG #2: I didn’t know how to crochet.

But hey, not knowing how to do something never stopped me before! I sat down with my good friend YouTube and desperately tried to teach myself to no avail. I ended up shelving the project for a couple years.

Finally, years later, I found myself sitting at a desk job working with a girl who knew how to crochet! Whenever we had down time (which was a lot) we picked up our yarn. Again, I was off!

I learned two important things about crocheting:

• It’s quick to do – having to rip out a round that you just crocheted because you messed up is far less upsetting than when you have to rip out a round of knitting.
• You have to pay attention – on one hand, it’s mind numbing and relaxing. On the other hand, you mess up your count then, well, just remind yourself of the important thing above.

Honestly once I actually learned how to crochet, figuring out how to make the rug was fairly simple. The only snag I ran into was having to determine how many times I wanted to loop the yarn over the light so that ample light shined though but it didn’t look sparse. However because of that snag, I re-crocheted this rug. Three. Times.

All in all, I think it took me about about three years and two hours to make this rug: three years to find someone to teach me to crochet, and two hours to make the rug a few times until I was happy.

Admittedly, I was right! It was SO COOL! Now, please enjoy the pictures I took when I plugged it in exactly one time and my dog laid on it, before I shoved it up into storage because what the heck do you do with a rug you can’t walk on?

Maybe I’ll take it apart again and weave the lights into a piece of macramé… Anyone want to teach me macramé?

Warmly,

EGinny