Sunday, January 18, 2009

Pseudo Felted Slippers

There may be vegan fibers suitable for felting - check out this amazing site - Liora Manne but I figure that since felting shrinks the wool - I could approximate it by knitting very tightly...

You'll need to knit a fairly square square - mine is 45 stitches by 65 rows on size 4 needles with two strands of worsted - just knit until your square measures about 1 inch longer than your foot...

The yarn is from my stash and I'm pretty sure the blue is Caron Simply Soft but I have no idea what the brown is...

I want the (slightly more interesting) purl side to the outside so fold the square into a triangle and seam up the bottom and about 3 to 4 inches up the back...

Turn them inside out and turn the tops down - now they look like some pointy little elfine booties - eh?

Thread a craft needle with about 12 inches of yarn and tack the little pointy toe back to the top of the booty - tie tightly and leave the thread there - we'll use it in a minute to attach the pompoms...

Wrap a couple of feet of yarn around a 1 inch piece of cardboard a few times and then pull the thread from the toe through the bottom of the wraps and tie tightly - then snip through the tops of the wraps and voila - you have a pompom...

Snip the ends of the toe thread that you tied the pompom with to match the length of the pompom...

Put your feet up and enjoy your cozy toes...

These are the same booties that I made for the Man-Cub last Christmas Triangle Booties- see it only takes me a year to get the pattern to ya'...

8 comments:

  1. I'm sure those wool booties are warm. E

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  2. I reread your blog. I guess they are not wool. Since I don't knit, I didn't understand the felting reference. Sorry. E

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  3. Those look so cozy and comfortable!

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  4. Cute slippers, do you ever use wool yarn?

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  5. So cute!!! And so very vegan, I love them!

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  6. Thanks everyone, and Hi Sandra, I won't say never as I have certainly used wool - I even spun it myself. Twice. Once I got a fleece from a friend in Candler NC who raised some pet sheep and carefully cut off some wool - not down to the skin - more like you would clip a dog's hair to help him stay cool in the heat of summer - and again from an MD friend - his boys had a couple of pet sheep - the same thing - they were just sheared for their own comfort - not for wool production.

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  7. Anonymous2:15 PM

    These look nice and easy - can you tell me how big your square was before you folded it and sewed it up? I could make these on my machine in just a few minutes!

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