The story of my slippers

So I'll admit, I'm becoming a little bit of a knitting/yarn geek. I read some very funny knitting books by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and learned some knitting tips along the way. And found her blog, where she talked about the amazing French press slippers , which supposedly only take 90 minutes to make and look like ballet flats when you're done. This sounded like something I wanted to try.

Now, these slippers are felted. If you're not familiar with felting of knitted pieces, you make something that's GIGANTIC, and then throw it in a hot washer with lots of agitation. In the process, it shrinks and goes from something that looks like knitted yarn to something that looks like pieces of felt someone lovingly sewed together.

So the last couple of days I knitted my slippers (in between a scarf that was supposed to be a Christmas present but might be done in time for Valentine's Day) and started to assemble them for the felting process. I showed them to J, and he asked if I was mailing them to Shaquille O'Neal. They were that big. I think the sole was 14" long when I was done knitting.

Well, I showed him. Into the washer they went. I checked on them periodically, trying them on to make sure I caught them before they shrank too much. Then I let them dry overnight and put the finishing touches on this afternoon.




Cute, no? And definitely smaller than Shaquille O'Neal's feet. Here, I'll show you.




Yay! My size :) And toasty warm.

I might get fancy and use some puffy paint to give them some traction. But in the meantime I have a cute pair of slippers that I made all by myself. Sorry Shaq. Better luck next time.

Oh, and in another bit of rambling randomness, it's snowing outside. And I'm starting to get in the mood to cook. Chili, Italian wedding soup, and molasses cookies are all on the agenda. I'll update when I have something to show you ;)