steam or block a crochet baby shoe?

[Su7]

hi, I am doing baby shoes I love it, makes me very happy to finish a project. I now my mother blocked her flat blankets with sugar and water. What about babyshoes, do I need them to steam? what would happen if I steam? and howto? just spray with water and then steam? I have some issues with this pattern, finished it has dents and bumps, dont know what I am doing wrong. Maybe steaming would do the job? thank you!

[NCcountrygal]

Cute booties. 
http://www.thecrochetcafe.com/baby-bootie-blocking/

[NCcountrygal]

More general info. https://crochet-news.com/what-is-blocking-in-crochet-and-how-to-do-it-written/

[Granny Square]

I don't know what type of yarn you used, but never block an acrylic wearable with heat.  Acrylic blankets maybe, but I personally don't like the results; I've never had a reason to block acrylic.  I don't see any dents and bumps, your booties are lovely as-is, and the purpose of blocking is not for fixing wonky stitches.  

Blocking with heat removes all the squishy, stretchy, soft nice properties of acrylic yarn, it turns it a bit 'crunchy' and it will not stretch and return to normal like it was before.  

I am a bit gobsmacked at the idea of blocking a blanket with sugar water.  I use a simple sugar solution (50/50 boiling water and sugar, cooled)  for snowflakes and bookmarks, and it turns them as stiff as cardboard.  You don't want cardboard booties, they should be soft and pliable and stretchy.

[ReniC]

You're booties are lovely! I never blocked booties either. What I did do is stuff the booties with pretty tissue paper to match the colors.

[Su7]

thank you so much, but what about the softness or stiffness. Would it be better to have it stiff like shoes, so it will keep their form like shoes?. And then I am thinking of would baby feel well in that sort of hard shoes, and then why not if it wears with socks. I actually hate it when they lose their shape. I will then post a pic what happens just if you TOUCH the booties. 

[MaryPat]

I do tend to steamblock acrylic with a steam cloth. wearables if they are somewhat flat -- a scarf, sweater pieces before they are assembled.   I have a strong background in sewing and like the look.  If a wearable has bumpy stitches such as puff or popcorn or cable, I will steam block only to straighten it out.  I suppose it is possible to overdo the blocking and melt the acrylic a bit -- almost always when a discussion of blocking acrylic that warning surfaces -- but I've managed the avoid that pitfall in 50 years of blocking acrylic.

Your booties are very cute.

[Granny Square]

Using heat to block them will make them limp, not stiff (note, this is not 'melting' by any stretch).  They will never have as nice and appropriate texture and stretchy-ness as they are now.  Booties are more like socks or slippers than grown-up shoes, they're not meant for walking great distances or on rough surfaces. (You haven't said if they are acrylic, I am just assuming.  But if they are cotton or wool, steaming won't have any affect.  You don't want booties to be stiff like grownup shoes, little kiddo isn't going to be walking miles in them--edit, in case that wasn't obvious that was meant as a joke, booties are for babies before they can walk, to keep their feet warm and for decoration mostly.  Once they can walk they need real shoes for proper support.

Try this:  Make a swatch or 2 and experiment with steaming your swatch.  Don't get the iron nearer than 4" or so and shoot steam at the swatch, and see what happens.

Edited March 23, 2021 by Granny Square

[Su7]

thank you I assume it is acrylic yarn. So I have read about blocking it is make it wet, put paper tissues in it form it, let it dry. What happens by steamblock, is it just put hot steam on the booties with iron, sorry I am not native speaker. I have read that heat make them melt and look therefore ugly. 

 

actually i just want them to keep their style/form while ON the feet and not distorted. Maybe like shoes.  So in the first pic you can see how it looks like when I push and pull it in form. I want them to stay like that! the next pic you can see what happens when I touch and move it. You see the toe area?

Edited March 26, 2021 by Su7

[Granny Square]

Another pair!  so cute! 

Blocking acrylic does not 'melt' acrylic like turning it into a liquid, but it does change the properties of it.  When blocking acrylic with heat you never touch the iron to the yarn, you blow steam at it (many steam irons have a "steam blast" button that allows you to do this).

I have a few acrylic crochet mats made to put on the table to protect the table from hot casserole dishes straight out of the oven.  I use them (and have for years), they do not melt but they look 'squashed' and sort of ugly and are 'crunchy' as I described earlier, but they don't literally melt onto the table.  I don't use acrylic potholders to take the dish out of the oven however, as it would probably be a mess if acrylic yarn actually touched the metal oven.

I have blocked acrylic with water (flat items) without steam and it can make a very tiny and very temporary difference, but I wouldn't  bother.  (edit, meant to say I wouldn't bother water blocking the booties, they look fine as they are--and soft and flexible, how most people would expect booties to be.)

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Granny Square

[Empress Busy Bee]

I have never steam blocked acrylic but I know a lot of people do.  I've seen it mostly for sweaters and shawls; that type of thing that needs more of a drape. From what I understand, done right steaming softens the yarn, it won't be stiffer.

Personally I would not steam the shoes.  You would loose all 'stiffness' that you have.  If you have extra yarn, you could do a swatch and steam that to see what happens so you understand better.

Remember the baby's foot will be in them and the shoes should have whatever problem you think it is having now.  I think they will be fine.  They are very cute shoes.

 

[Su7]

thank you I found a method for solve my problem temporarily. It is could iron help and it stiffens for example shirt collar. I spray it and pull and push and let it dry. It does the job but if you take it in your hands it softens again if you touch it alot. Maybe I will spray more on it to get the look I prefer.  I just wish I had a baby daughter to wear it..will save up some. Do they get bad with time? yellowish or something?

Edited April 19, 2021 by Su7

[Granny Square]

Hello again!

I think what you meant to say in your last post is to (just) spray the booties with spray starch that is meant for spraying on a shirt collar when you iron the shirt.  If instead you meant to spray the starch on the booties AND use an iron to shoot hot steam at the booties, go back and read what I said earlier about steam blocking acrylic--heat makes the fabric quite limp, way more than the spray starch would make up for so you will have wasted all your effort on the cute booties.

Assuming you meant to just spray the booties with the starch - I use spray starch to stiffen my (usually white or mostly white) doilies when I block them with rustproof pins (no ironing).  It does not make them stiff, it just helps them keep their blocked shape.  The starch does not turn them yellow (or hasn't done so to mine), and have some doilies that are a few decades old.  

Having said all that, the doilies are made with tightly stitched cotton crochet thread, and the thread itself is tightly twisted and unstarched is stiffer than the fluffy sort of yarn you used, so starch has more effect on them.  In other words, the spray starch may make the booties a very tiny bit stiffer to present them as a gift to the mother, but aren't going to stay stiff once worn. 

You might want to test this - make a little swatch with leftover yarn.  Feel how stiff (or not) it is.  Spray it until it is soaked with the spray starch and let it dry (might take a while).  I doubt you will notice a difference, and if there is any it won't last.

The only way I can think of to make a REALLY STIFF bootie is to use a hook that is inappropriately small for the yarn, but then you'd have to rewrite the pattern to add stitches to get it to come out the right size.  

Edited April 19, 2021 by Granny Square

[Granny Square]

If you are interested, some free patterns for thread booties.  If you are not a Ravelry member, you may have to re-do the search parameter - I put bootie in the 'search for:' box, then chose crochet in the 'craft' box, 'English' in the language box and thread in the 'weight' box.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#craft=crochet&availability=free&language=u|en&weight=thread&query=baby bootie&sort=best&view=captioned_thumbs

 

[Granny Square]

Just a thought - Scrolling back to your first post, do the purple booties seem a little stiffer at the lower part than the other booties? They have more SC content than the others; SC is a bit more 'solid' than DC.