We are having serious slipper issues hereabouts. And as I'm the resident slipper maker, well, I guess we know who's fault it is.
The first problem is what might be called catastrophic slipper failure. Will's slipper socks, the very first Christmas gift I finished knitting but farted around when it came time to actually attaching them to the slipper soles and finally did a few days after Christmas DO NOT FIT. Ugg. FAIL! I was so careful to make them long enough to fit his freakishly gargantuan feet but forgot to make the ankle wide enough for said giant foot to make teh critical turn into to. HE can get them on, but only just. ANd sicne they were knit from the top down I have to rip out pretty much the whole freaking thing and start over. I don't have enough of the yarn I used to just start new ones, but since Briton's turned out so well with the soft worsted yarn I used, I may just bag the pair I made for Will and begin again with different yarn. And now that I think about it, I could probably take out the toes and just shorten them for me, I do love wool socks. But still. Uggg.
Which brings us to slipper malfunction number two. My slippers (the kids are still going strong and worn every day, yay!) have holes in them already. Yes, my thick, took-forever-to-knit-practically-killed-my-hands-felting-them slippers. Holes. In both feet.Ok, so I wore them outside. A lot. And I wear them pretty much all day every day. So, you know, it's not totally the slipper's fault. When I knit the pattern I wondered why the upper part of the slipper had two layers, one of which was knit out of bulky yarn making the felted version really really thick while the sole was just one layer of worsted. But whatever, I trusted the pattern. And to be fair, the patten did suggest adding small leather pads to the balls and heels of the feet. But I didn't want to sew them on because, well, I wanted to get wearing them and stop freaking working on them.
So now they are in need of serious repair because I love them. LOVE them. They are so warm and cozy and yes, a little funny looking. So it's a good thing my grandma is here because she has just started in on needle felting and we've come up with a plan.
Yesterday I bought 1/3 a yard of 100% wool felt (I could have gotten felt with a lower wool content for a lot less but I wanted it to felt up really thick so I went whole hog) and then threw it in the wash. When it came out it was, indeed, super thick and I cut out two soles and four smaller circles for the balls of the feet and the heels. The plan is to felt on the sole and heel patches for reinforcements and then add the whole sole piece for a thicker, all-over bottom. Of course I broke her brand new felting needle on the third punch in (ahhhh!) so it hasn't gotten very far but at least the pieces are felted and cut and a replacement set of needles, as well as one for me, has been found at the nearest Hobby Lobby. So tonight my feet were cold but hopefully tomorrow, or maybe the next day, the dreamy slippers will be resoled again. Yipee!
I'm quite eager to try out some needle felting actually, provided I don't continue to break the needles that is, and I'd like to try out a few new projects using roving and needles. Anyone out there tried it before? Words of wisdom?