Boots for Barter!

November 18, 2014

My hairstylist posted a want ad on Facebook. She claimed she'd give a free haircut to anyone who could make her these slipper boots: Little Red Riding Slippers. Challenge accepted.

CAUTION: DO NOT visit this website if you are an obsessive crocheter/knitter like me! Soooo many amazing patterns! And FREE!!!

I didn't have size 10 double points to make the foot parts and couldn't find any in stores, so I had to order some online. While I was waiting for my Knit Picks Rainbow DPNs to arrive, I got started on the upper cable sections, which are knit flat on regular needles. I had picked out some basic worsted weight yarn in grey with little flecks of brown in it, which ended up matching really well with the coconut shell buttons I picked out. These parts worked up really quickly (and kept my interest with the cable pattern), and soon I had two strips of cute grey cables. Yay!

My DPNs had arrived, along with a hank of lovely primary colored Stroll Sock Yarn in Cartoon for a Christmas gift I'm planning, so I got right to work on making the footie parts of the slippers.

I don't have much experience with using DPNs to make things with shape, but after some close examination of the pattern, I figured out roughly what the idea was. These patterns aren't written in a row-by-row fashion; rather they're based primarily on a "do this until it's this long" procedure.

So basically, I cast on the 38 stitches for a "medium" size slipper and knit in the round in garter stitch until the ankle piece was an inch and a half long.

Then, I slid most of the stitches onto a circular need to hold them while I knit the part for along the top of the foot. The pattern says 3 3/4" for this part, so that's what I did despite being a tad skeptical about a foot being 3 3/4" long from the ankle to the toes. I mean... I have small feet, and the ruler says 6" for me... but that's what the pattern said so that's what I did.

Once the top of the foot was to the "designated length", I put the stitches on the circular needle back onto the DPNs. I then picked up stitches along the edges of the top of the foot piece. This took a bit of finagling to work out right; I feel like I went around a couple times just slipping the stitches onto the needles and picking up loops, then again to actually knit them. Hopefully the second time goes a little smoother!

It doesn't seem to make sense, but now I work in the round to build up the sides of the bootie, around from heel to side to toe to the other side. Once this piece is 3/4" long, I start to decrease at the heel and toe to bring it in. This should leave a seam at the bottom of the foot to stitch closed once the stitches are bound off.

And here's my first attempt at a slipper... Hmm. Maybe I should have stuck with my gut and made the top section a lot longer! It kind of fits my dog... if he had huge ankles! :) Oops. Even the most seasoned fiber crafters screw up sometimes. But to be fair- I WAS just following the pattern! Now I know... and I will eventually get a pair of these done to trade for my holiday haircut!

I finally got one that seems to be big enough. It still looks small, but it stretches quite a bit. Now to repeat exactly what I did here to make a second one...