Crochet, rescues and cuddles!

Julia, bless her, has got rather wide feet and I've found it difficult to get "real" children's footwear to fit her.  As I was idly browsing through my humungous file of crochet patterns the other day, sweetie~pies, I came across quite a few for baby "shoes" and bootees.  Unfortunately I didn't think to include a link to the appropriate website where I found this particular pattern when I saved it to my computer, so I'm sorry to say that unfortunately I can't point you in the right direction.

I made a test pair, then tweaked the pattern to get a better fit for Julia.  I didn't have to do much altering, actually ~ just adding a wee bit here and taking out a smidgeon there :-) 

I made this first pair as an "everyday" sort of slipper, something Julia can wear to play in.  I've got ideas for taking the basic, tweaked, pattern and making more pairs in prettier colours, adding embellishments, etc.  The pink edging on this pair ties in very nicely with Julia's winter dress.

I am very pleased with the end result ~ and more importantly, so is Julia ;-)

As usual I have a few WIPs on the go at the moment, my loves, and this latest crochet ripple blanket is one of them.  I am using double knitting yarn and a 4.5mm crochet hook.

I was supposed to be making this blanket as a Christmas gift but have to confess that I am liking it more and more ~ so I may well end up keeping it myself instead LOL  It makes a nice change using just three neutral shades rather than a riot of colours; it is proving to be very soothing to crochet :-)

And here is the "rescue" mentioned in the title to this post ;-) 

This poor battered little galvanised watering-can had been dumped ~ I found it the other day whilst dog-walking.  It's not that easy to tell from this angle but the spout is bent to one side, there is a pretty large hole in the base and it doesn't sit flat!  I'm going to use it as a plant container :-)

Nikki believes herself to be a lap-dog LOL  She adores having cuddles and most evenings she climbs up on to my chair ~ which is a recliner, so has a very convenient footrest LOL ~ for a cuddling session. She is turning out to be an amazing little girl; my Dad (in the photo above) can't believe how much she craves the closeness of people after all she has been through. I just keep telling him that she knows we love her and would never do her any harm ~ basically, she has learnt to trust us. I also think that having Matty as her doggy companion has helped enormously as he is such a happy, friendly and soppy boy :-)