Felted Slippers

My daughter has been asking for slippers all winter. Around Christmas, I saw that many places were selling "boiled wool" slippers, and I thought, hey, that's just felted yarn! Why buy slippers for $19.99 when I can spend sixteen hours knitting them?I had to explain it all several times to my confused husband: yes, first you knit slippers and then you wash them in hot water to make them look like they weren't knitted. Duh.

Of course, Christmas came and went, and I still hadn't made slippers. Then my dad and stepmom bought Juniper a child's sized pink snuggie for her birthday, and it came with a pair of pink fleece socks. The socks, which she lovingly called slippers, were as cherished as the monstrous pink blanket with armholes that she started sleeping with with instead of the quilt I made her. The poor girl was really desperate for slippers and I wasn't about to concede victory to that smiley white guy on the couch who really needs to stop raising the roof while wearing a cheap fleece blanket with arm holes.

I took her to the yarn store and let her pick out whatever yarn she wanted. She choose purple, and last month, I finally started making them. I followed this pattern, which instructs you to knit a long strip, about 4 inches wide and two feet long, with two extra squares on each side near the bottom and top. Then you fold the strip up and sew the edges together, and it takes the form of a giant, pointy shoe. Then you throw the slippers in a hot wash (I used my front loading machine), and voila! the giant crazy pointy shoes turn into darling slippers.

I followed the instructions for the child's size. They are perfect -- maybe a little big, but they will definitely fit next winter. Best of all: it turns out she she likes them even more than the snuggie socks.

(yarn details on ravelry.)

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