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Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Easy & quick knitting project: Slippers for the whole family

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately - trying to spread the cozy woolen love. I cleaned out my craft closet and found several incomplete knitting projects - it's just embarrassing to admit how many, so I won't. I spent a bunch of time organizing and undoing old knitting projects that I knew I'd never finish, like that over-sized mohair cardigan I started in the 80s.

My son has been asking me, almost daily for a few months, when I will knit something for him. I knit him a quick bag for his toys... which went over like a lead balloon. There's not a lot of spare time for large knitting projects these days, so I had to find something else that isn't as big of a commitment as a sweater, and isn't winter-wear since it's now spring.

I found this great knit slipper based on an old 1940s pattern, adapted by Bev Qualheim. It knits up fast and true to the pattern. It's not difficult to adjust the size of these slippers as you go. To make them longer just keep knitting until you reach the desired length less 2" for the toe. To make them wider, just cast on a few more stitches, or increase (I increased in the middle, just inside the purled stitches) as you get to the wider part of the foot.

Here are some pictures of Jack's slippers. Of course, I had to complicate things by adding a second colour. I used a strand of green and a strand of multi-coloured wool for the foot and green and blue for the toe. I think they're pretty cute.



I knit some slippers for myself with reclaimed pink and burgundy wool. You may recall that I am not a fan of pink, yet the wool needed to be used and what else was I going to do with it? Combining the two colours made it less 'pinky'. I made mine both longer and wider than the instructions indicate for my size 9-wide feet.



And then I knit two more pair - matching slippers for Jack and his dad - from some funky 80s style chunky wool. I revised the heel on these two. The original pattern leaves a bump on the bottom. I started with fewer stitches in the centre section (1 stitch on Jack's, and 3 stitches on dad's) and then increased by two stitches every second (WS) row to the number of stitches in the original instructions. This allowed the heel to lie flat.


This is my new favourite slipper pattern! What do you think?

Do you have a slipper pattern to share? I'm always looking for ways to do things a little differently.

4 comments:

  1. You did a beautiful job creating those slippers! Well done. And thanks for the link to my site. ♥ Bev

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  2. Thanks Bev. I was very excited to discover them on your site! They really do knit up very nicely and they are so cozy.

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  3. Replies
    1. Hi Kenzie. Thanks for your question. If you click on the link above (or this one: http://bevscountrycottage.com/maggieslippers.html), that will take you to the original instructions. You can then, if you like, follow my changes above. These really are so easy to make and sooo comfortable!

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