Pattern: Ballerina Felt Slippers from Fiber Trends
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Blueberry
Size: Women's Small
Yardage: 1 skein
Needles: 6.00 mm bamboo circular (24")

These are great slippers. In fact there are so sturdy feeling they are more like knitted shoes. It took five trips through our washing machine to get them to fit my feet - we have a front loader and they don't rough things around like a top loading machine. I think a singles yarn would have felted a little faster and given a smoother finished look. The yarn I used is plied and there are little loops in the surface of the fabric.

To make the decorations I cut large and small circles of some very thin felt (left over from making my wedding flowers). I snipped around the edges to make petals and then needle felted the centres onto the slippers. I sewed some beads in a sort of a circle design in the middles to give them a bit of sparkle.

I like wearing these slippers. They are a nice close fit and don't fall off my feet when I'm walking and they are very warm. I'm going to have cozy toes this winter.

Before:


After:



This is another project from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. The needle book but with a couple of variations because I didn’t want a printed label and really wanted a snap (I’m really into snaps right now). It won’t be staying here though – this little book is going to go for a trip and land on someone else’s sewing table. I hope she likes it.

Pattern: “Booga Bag” from Black Sheep Bags

Yarn: Noro Kureyon in colour #178

Yardage: 3 skeins

Needles: 7.00 mm bamboo 24” circular

My Booga Bag is finished! This was a really fun project. The knitting was simple and colourful and the end product is great. The long colour transitions in the Noro yarn are fun to watch as they emerge and I like the gradual striping they create.

I forgot to take any pre-felting pictures (I’d completely meant to but didn’t get the camera out until after it was in the sink) so you’ll just have to picture some basic stocking stitch with a slightly loose gauge in the same colours as my finished bag. Pre-felt measurement were 25 cm x 12 cm for the bottom of the bag and 31 cm for the height. I felted the i-cord handle with the bag.

I decided to felt my bag in the sink instead of in the washer since I live in an apartment building and don’t have a lot of control over my washing machine. There is something a little surreal about putting a piece of wool knitting into a sink of hot soapy water and then smashing it around with a wooden spoon.

 

 

It spent about an hour from start to finish. Most of the agitation was with the spoon but I did some rubbing by hands when the water was cool enough. I rinsed the felt with alternating hot and cold water which tightened it up a bit and then left it to dry over a shoe box. Measurements were 23 cm x 12 cm for the bottom and 25 cm for the height.

 

 

After it was dry I checked out the felt. It looked nice - not too fuzzy and the colour transitions looked good - but it was still a bit stretchy and I could see through the stitches a bit.

I decided to have a second go at felting and dropped the bag into a sink of really hot soapy water and let the fibres soften up until it was cool enough to put my hands in. This time around I felted by rubbing the fabric between my hands and working methodically around the bad to make sure no spots were missed. It might have been better to rub a little less vigourously - I had to trim a good number of pills off the outside of my bag when I was done - but I managed to produce a nice sturdy felt that was dense but still flexible.

 

 

Once again my bag had to dry over the box. Measurements this time were 22 cm x 11 cm for the bottom and 24 cm for the height. This evening I pulled it off the box and, following the pattern directions, made holes in the sides for the handles. I cut my i-cord in half and threaded it through then spent a while standing in front of the mirror trying to determine the perfect handle length.