I know I mentioned these slippers briefly in a past entry and I promised to follow up on them and give more information, so here it goes.

The pattern is from Fiber Trends: Felt Clogs which can be found by following the link. I swear this pattern is like magic. Like any good recipe, it never fails. And it’s so much fun to knit up. I especially love the shaping parts. Once you know the pattern you really don’t have to keep reading because you know when you come to your slipped stitch it’s time to decrease and turn.

I first learned how to knit these cozy slippers (to me they are not clogs!) in a class taught by Julie at My Sister Knits back when we lived in Ft. Collins. {OH! How I miss that yarn shop! I could cry just thinking about it.} After that there was no turning back. I couldn’t be stopped from offering to make them for everybody I could think of.

The actual pattern calls for using two strands of worsted wool, but I knit them the way that Julie did. With Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky, so only one strand is needed. Plus, the Lamb’s Pride is 85% wool / 15% mohair which gives the slippers extra fuzziness when felted. I can’t imagine using anything else although I have seen other yarns used with the pattern and I didn’t think they came out looking as nice.

I always make them two color: one color for the sole and cuff (you’ll need two skeins of whichever color you choose); and one skein of yarn for the body of the slipper. If you make the largest men’s size you may need an extra skein for the body, as when I made Rick’s I had just barely enough! I double sole them, so the first sole is knit first and incorporated into the body of the slipper. The second sole is worked separately and joined on to the first. Some people put leather soles on them but we like them better without it. The leather sole takes away the soft, cushy feel. Of course without the leather soles you can’t walk outside when it’s wet in them because they work just like a sponge!

Here is the slipper with only one sole, the seam still needing to be sewn.

The pattern has the slippers being more of a scuff style where you can slip them on your feet but we prefer a higher heel, so I knit four extra rows before continuing with the cuff.

Close-up of the cuff.

The pattern calls for a more complicated joining of the outer sole, but again, I follow Julie’s easier join. It’s a matter of picking up a stitch from the first sole, knitting that stitch plus the next stitch on the needle together, then binding off as you go along. Simple!

The outer sole joined but not seamed.

Here is the slipper before felting next to Rick’s foot and next to his old slippers to give you an idea of how big they are to begin with. At this point you are wondering if they are ever going to fit properly!

Now for the felting process! I toss the slippers in a pillowcase using a rubber band to keep it closed. I also toss an old pair of sneakers into the washer along with the slippers to give extra friction for faster felting. Use the hottest water possible, only allowing the cycle to run until it’s ready to spin. Don’t spin your slippers!!! Take them out, gently squeeze the excess water out of them (I am lucky enough to have a laundry tub next to the washer) and reshape them while letting your washer finish its cycle by itself. Here they are after the first run-through.

Reshaping the slippers after each cycle helps to keep lumps and bumps from getting set in. You want a nice smooth surface for your slipper, now don’t you? Put them back in the pillowcase and repeat the process until you reach the desired size. Mine typically take three wash cycles before they reach the right degree of felting and sizing. Here they are after the second cycle.

And the third.

See what the mohair does for them? Look at the fuzz!

When you’re satisfied, gently press most of the water out of them but don’t wring them out. Shape them carefully by getting out all the little dips and kinks that might have popped up during washing. Just remember that they will dry in whatever form you put them in!  Place them on a thick towel to dry. I like to stuff mine with balled up plastic grocery sacks for the first day or so. It helps them to keep their shape. You can take them out when the slippers have dried sufficiently to hold their shape on their own. It will take several days before they are fully dry. Sometimes I put mine on our heated towel rack to speed up the process. Don’t worry about right and left; the slippers will conform to your feet once you start wearing them.

Behold the finished slippers!

Nothing else left to do now except put them on your feet and let them glory in the warmth and coziness! Rick swears he never needs any other kind of slipper ever again!

I am making myself a new pair now as my old ones are worn through. It’s time, don’t you think?

I hate stripping tinsel off the tree. Why is it that before Christmas all the decorations look so festive and after Christmas they just look tired (or maybe I am just tired of looking at them) and you can’t wait to take them down. Once it’s over, it’s over for me. Kind of like deflating a balloon. That’s about how I’m feeling. Yesterday I took down all the “fresh” boughs and tossed them out. They were brittle and shedding needles everywhere, making a fine mess to clean up. So, the dining room is completely de-Christmasized but the living room is not. I did take all the tinsel off the tree and the snowflake ornaments, leaving only the garlands and the lights. Hopefully today I can finish the job. The outside decorations will just have to stay up a few weeks longer under we can get the ladder out to take down the wreaths.

Here’s how Bella feels about the whole Christmas-(toy)-overload thing.

We had a surprise snow on Sunday afternoon, almost a mini blizzard. It was not predicted, yet huge flakes of fluffy snow fell for about 3 hours. The wind blew and the snow was really falling horizontally. So pretty! We ended up with about two inches of snow, but it was blowing and drifting so it’s hard to tell how much we really got on the level. It’s also frigidly cold! We’ve had a lot of wind lately and it’s not my favorite thing. It finds its way through every little crack and crevice of the house. We had both the fireplace and the wood stove going all weekend, so we were cozy and happy playing our newest Mario Wii game.

PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t take my Food Network (and HGTV) away you big bad stinkin’ lousy Cablevision! I hate you! On Sunday I tuned our TV to the Food Network channel hoping to watch Iron Chef. Instead of Iron Chef I got someone yakking about why Scripps has pulled “your” Food Network and HGTV channels. My first reaction was to throw the remote through the screen, but of course then I wouldn’t have any TV at all. But ... but ... WAAAAAHHHHHH! I called the number listed to complain but I doubt it means anything to them. We are being held hostage for no fault of our own. Here’s hoping they work out some agreement money-wise that they can both live with without sending our cable bill sky high. 

I’ve been sort of a slug over the holidays with company and Rick home a lot. I need to get back into my groove again of walking the dogs each day, knitting, learning how to hook, trying new recipes etc., etc.  And, I have these two new books to help me with the hooking and knitting bits.

The Fearless Knitting Workbook (which I got for Christmas) has lessons like this:

How fun does that look? The Basic Rug Hooking book looks great too but I just got it the day before yesterday and I haven’t really had a chance to look at it in-depth just yet. I’m anxious to get started and see how I like it.

So, I have plenty of things to keep me busy, Food Network or not. Here’s to getting back to routine!

Side note: I just read over this entry before hitting the publish button and realized it makes no sense at all. Oh well. Just what’s on my mind this morning! I’m hitting the button anyway ...

Today I mailed off the last of my Christmas gifts. I am thankful to live in such a small town where the lines at the Post Office this time of year are only five people deep, even though a few of those people had tons of stuff to mail. The older-than-me lady in front of me was chatty and didn’t have an envelope or box for what she was mailing yet. We discussed her options, box vs envelope, and she told me what she mailing off to her daughter and granddaughter. Surprise! We were both mailing the same kind of gift! Something done by hand ... can’t tell you what because the recipient of the gift reads the blog. So, we chatted a bit about the gifts we had both made.

The woman behind me was pregnant—very—with a little girl in tow. The woman in front of me turned around and asked her if she knew if she was having a boy or girl. “Boy,” she replied. “Oh how nice!” the woman in front of me said. “We’ll see ...” said the expectant mother. I jumped into the conversation (what the heck) and asked her when she was due. “Any day now,” was her reply. “I hope he waits until after Christmas as I don’t want her (pointing to her little girl) to miss Christmas.” I told her I was a Christmas week baby myself and it wasn’t such a bad time of year to be born.

My turn at the counter finally arrived. I took my box up and sat it down, pointing at the corners where Alex (left in the car) had chewed on the box while I was taking Hailey inside to the groomers. Damn dog. I asked the postal clerk if she could please put some large tape on the two damaged corners where there were now gaping holes since my dog had decided to chew on it. She laughed and looked up at me. “My dog peed on my Christmas tree this weekend and it’s not even real. He has never done anything like that! Not even when he was a puppy which was a long time ago. I had to wash everything down and it still stinks,” she told me. “Oh, dear, how awful!” I murmured. The postal clerk at the next station asked me what kind of dog it was. I told her a Bernese Mountain Dog. The woman who had been in front of me in line was still taking care of her package at the clerk next to me. “OH!” she exclaimed, “I just love those dogs but they are too big for me!” Too bad. I was going to offer her Alex for real cheap.

As that woman was leaving she turned to wish the young mother-to-be good luck and then wished me a Merry Christmas. I wished her one back, finished up my transaction and left, wishing them all a Merry Christmas.

Did I say why I love living in a small town? None of us knew each other, but that didn’t matter one bit!

Sunrise over the backyard this morning.

I know I haven’t posted much over the weekend. Well, okay, not at all. Black Lynne was in residence but I think she’s left now. For those of you who know me personally, you’ll understand. Sometimes there is just a black cloud over my head and no matter how much I try and shake it off, its persistence is maddening. If I dodge left, it follows; dodging right has the same effect. Sometimes it comes with rain, thunder, and even lightning. Thankfully this time there was only a touch of rain.

Perhaps I can blame it on the wind. (Or maybe I should just admit I’m a moody little bugger.)  But I do believe it has something to do with the barometric pressure of which I seem to be closely aligned with. It seems magnified being this close to sea level. The dogs feel it too and get very jumpy. We had a big blow overnight on Friday night into the day on Saturday. The wind woke me up out of a sound sleep. It barreled through the trees with a steady freight train roar, the gusts shaking the house. It woke up the old ghost in the attic, forcing it to walk the floorboards above me. (Not really sure what causes this phenomenon to occur but it happens whenever the wind is really bad, and believe me it sounds like someone is walking in the attic. Creepy.) Phantom tree branches scraped against the house like gnarly fingers on a chalk board. We lost power several times during the day on Saturday but at least we didn’t lose any big trees. Our neighbor across the street lost a big one that came down over the road. We lost a few small ones that got uprooted, and lots of large branches all over the front yard, but thankfully nothing major. Our flag blew right off the flag pole and ended up in the neighbor’s yard across the street: undamaged I might add. I HATE wind.

The wind did cooperate on Sunday and settled down so that we could put up the outside Christmas lights and decorations. All went well except for one small thing. Rick was hanging wreaths above the four downstairs windows and I was holding the ladder for him. When I looked up I caught a blur of motion before I felt something hit my chin hard. ouch! A large flashlight had fallen out of his pocket and found me on its way down. I have a small bruise and a somewhat tender chin—nothing big. I’m just glad it hit me there instead of in the eye or on the nose. But, the outside of the house looks nice and festive!

The wind did knock plenty of pine cones out of our tree which seems to have an overly large supply this year. I picked them all up and saved them for lighting fires in the wood stove. Look at how many!

Bella got her sutures out on Friday, but the vet still insists that we not let her out with the other dogs and to curtail her activity level. I asked the vet if she’d like to come home with us and help out with that. Honestly, Bella is feeling so good it’s a constant struggle to not let her run. The vet was adamant, however, so we will continue to follow instructions for another two weeks. Bella can’t wait to be free again to do as she’d like and I can’t wait for my freedom again either.

Yesterday I boiled down the turkey carcass and made turkey pot pie with the last of the turkey. It was the perfect day for it since it was rainy and grey out. Yum! I love turkey or chicken pot pies made with broth from scratch. The only frozen ingredient is the peas, otherwise I use only fresh carrots, celery, and onions with a biscuit dough topping (also from scratch).  I made extra filling so I could have it to freeze for another meal later on. Rick declared it the best ever but I just think he forgets from year to year how good it is.

I finished one slipper (double sole and all) and started on the next one. I had to remind myself how to roll the cuff and use the same technique to attach the second sole! (Letty, I promise to do a post on this!)

I have most of my Christmas shopping done already. This is the first year I can remember that I’ve been so far ahead of the game. I have to admit that I did most of it online—just too easy!

Johnny gets his winter gear on tomorrow. Off with the mowing deck and on with the snow blower! The snow poles are up on the driveway, so now we just have to wait for the white stuff to start falling from the sky. Fingers crossed.

I think that about catches up all that’s happening around here. More to come soon! Thanks for stopping by!

The winner for the yarn giveaway is BECKY!

Becky, you were chosen from hand written names tossed into a coffee cup. From there, husband Rick was asked to draw the winning person, and it was you! Congratulations!

Since I don’t know your snail mail address, please email me.

I would love to see what you do with this yarn! You are one winning woman!!