Blingy Socks

I have been working on a HUGEMUNGUS order of beaded bobby socks. I struck a deal with a neighbor. You see, I hate....no....loathe yard work. Really, I will scrub toilets all day if I don't have to mow the lawn. It just so happens she enjoys yard work and needed something special for baby shower gifts. 2 ladies in her life were expecting little girls, and after showing me a photo of some beaded bobby socks, I knew I could make them for her. She requested 2 dozen socks in return for mowing my lawn until the first freeze. Done deal!

I have been working on these socks for a couple of months now in between Etsy orders. I have fallen in love with the look of these socks, and I wanted to share with you how easy they are to create. These socks are meant for photo props only, under supervision since they are made with beads. Here it is! One of the easiest projects you will ever create!

What you'll need

*Aunt Lydia's crochet thred

*1.5mm crochet hook

*Bobby Socks (these are gerber brand)

*beads of any sort

Aunt Lydia's comes in a varity of colors that you can use to match your socks. It is small enough for the beads to slide onto easily, as well as small enough to fit through the gaps of the knit on the bobby socks.

A small hook is perfect for pulling the thread up through the gaps in the socks

Bobby socks are exactly what you need for this project. They are knit, which means the lines you can see visibly will have little gaps where you can insert your hook.

Colorful beads of any sort that will easily slide onto your thread. You can get creative too! I was given some beads to you, and I picked up a few of my own as well. Big, small, and everything in between. 

Now, lets get started! The first thing you will want to do is string the beads onto the crochet thread. You should add about 20 beads for one sock. I always add a little more.

When you unfold and stretch the sock, you will see the little gaps I have been speaking of. You will want to make sure you are not crocheting around the top hole. You want to reinforce it......

That means you will be inserting your hook in the 3-4 gap down from the hem. 

You are going to attach the thread to the back of the sock, then chain. The number of chains is up to you. The more you have, the longer the bead will lay on the sock. In this instance, In this case, I used 6 and 3 chains.

Next, you are going to pull the first bead towards your chains. I like to measure the loop I will create by pinching the 6th chain with the top of my thumb, and holding the bead about mid thumb to make a loop. You are going to slip stitch into the 6th chain to make the loop that the bead will lay in, then chain 6 more.

Here is the loop

Then, you are going ot stretch the sock enough for you to see the gaps, and you are going to slip stitch into the fourth gap from your previous join. Next, chain 3, and repeat the loop, chain 3, and slip stitch again into the fourth gap. This will create a verigation in the beads. You will repeat this all the way around the hem of the sock, and tie off when you are done. 

Here is the finished prodct. See! It is really freaking simple! All you have to do is chain, slip, and create that loop. 

Here are some examples of some of the other socks I have made. Once you figure out how to make them, you can do all sorts of fun things! I have experiemented with fun fur, as well as crocheting through the beads rather than stringing them onto the thread first.

Fun fur turned out to look like Tinker Bell

These are triangle shaped beads that I crocheted around rather then stringing onto the socks I was able to get this wavey shape by crocheting in every gap rather than skipping 3.

I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial! If you have any questions, please let me know. These make fantastic baby shower gifts! 

Let There Be Light

My son has been in Florida with my parents for the past few weeks, and this means my daughter has been getting good and spoiled! This is a good thing. She and I have never had real alone time together, and we both needed this. I needed to see her. I mean, really see her. She has such a big heart and tends to get lost in the mix of life. I decided this was her time to be spoiled, even if that meant doing so on a single mama budget.

This led me to the "Let There Be Light" project in her room. When I first moved into the duplex I rent, it was less than a month before her birthday. I couldn't afford much, but what she really wanted was purple walls. Now THAT I could do! In fact, I scored a gallon of "ooops" paint for $7, and that 1 gallon was enough to covere her room. The only problem is that her room was dark already. It is in the middle of the house, and though it has a window that spans the width of her room, there is a lovely shade tree that keeps a lot of natural light from coming in. There is a main light in her room, but it is recessed and doesn't shine very bright. She has a lamp on her night stand, and though it's nice, I wanted to do something pretty for her.

I then turned to pinterest. You know those "nailed it" meme's? Well, I am proud to say that this will not be rotated through those! This actually turned out well, and it was so stinking simple!! Without futher ado, here it is.......

Now I will say that some pf my crafting OCD has kicked in, but there isn't much I can do about it. I wish I could move the bed so that the plug was covered by the leg of the bed, but then her bed would pretty much be on top of her dresser. I also don't like the excess strand on the other side, so I will have to find something to do with it. However, my girl LOVES it! She said it makes her feel like she's living with fairies.

Here is what you'll need:

3 yards of tulle for a twin sized bed

Christmas lights

A curtain rod

Scissors

Pencil

Level

Drill

I let my girl choose what kind of tulle she wanted for this project. She really surprised me by choosing a creamy colored glittery tulle. I honestly thought she would go for the bright pink or bright blue to match the monster high colors she has going on. I was able to score a great deal on this becuase it was on sale for less than $2/yard. I checked out the clearence section in the home decor area and found a curtain rod for $6.97!  I also was able to go right next store to Big Lots to pick up the lights, which ended up being the most costly part of this project, but it is off season, so there's that.

I measured out the width of her bed, and then I went a little wider. I ended up going 49.5" wide on the curtain rod. I then measured the wall behind her bed. Once I figured out where to hang the rod, I used a pencil to mark the rod holders. When it was time to drill, I realized my battery was dead. Womp, womp, womp. Pro tip....keep the battery charged! So, I ended up taking a late photo of her room because my thoughts are THAT organized (insert sarcastic tone). If this were any other beautiful blog, I would have take a before pic, you know, before I moved the furniture out of my way. Instead, you get the messy photo, but you get the gist. It's a dark room. 

Thankfully it didn't take long for the drill to charge, and then I was off. Oooooor so I thought. The cat decided to make an appearence. Of course, all things must be approved by her first.

I shooed her away and FINALLY got going. I cut the tulle into strips. Thankfully, this is a very forgiving material, and considering the nature of this project, If you cut a little wonky, you won't really know the difference. After I cut the strips, I strung the lights on. Finally, I just tied the tulle inbetween strands of light. Open and fluff the top of the tulle and voila, you have a budget friendly, fairy like light fixture. My girl is so excited for this, and I am excited for her. She will be starting middle school this fall, and she deserves a place that feels like her sanctuary.

This has really brightened her room, and though christmas light tend to give off a soft glow, it feels more airy and cozy in her room. She couldn't wait to plug in her lights and enjoy the sparkle tonight. The other thing, the glitter in the tulle looks fantastic! You can't see it in the picture, so you'll just have to believe me. You just can't go wrong with glitter, even if that means being covered in it for a little while!