Whoops, still haven’t posted all my 2011 FOs! So here’s the story of my second-to-last project of last year.
Years ago, before I knew any better, I’d purchased a bag of bulky-weight wool on sale. It wasn’t until after it was too late to return it that I asked myself: “what the heck does a San Diegan need bulky-weight wool for, anyway?!”
Finally, it was T who gave me an answer. We had a conversation a couple of weeks before Christmas that started like this:
T: “My feet are cold.”
K: “Dude, I made you two pairs of wool socks, why don’t you wear them?”
T: “I don’t want to wreck them!”
Which explains why I once thought he never wore his handknit socks. Turns out he does, but only in shoes. Since we don’t wear shoes in the house, and he didn’t own any slippers, he would swap out the wool socks out for cotton ones as soon as he got home.
And he’d been doing that because our carpet is pretty hard on socks. He witnessed me darn several of my pairs within the first six months of our moving into our current place, before I remembered that I actually owned a pair of slippers (a gift from my parents that I’d barely used in my previous laminate-floored place) and started using them regularly. I haven’t had much of a problem with premature sock wear since.
So, the conversation continued along these lines:
K: “Well… I could make you house socks out of heavier yarn so they wouldn’t take as much time, would you feel less bad about wrecking them then?”
T: “I guess. But what about slippers?”
And you know? That wasn’t a bad idea.
Pattern: Felt Clogs by Bev Galeskas
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Wool Bulky in Oxford Heather
Needles: US13 Denise circulars
I opted for this particular pattern, since I knew several people who had used it – more than once, even! And I can see why it’s so popular, it’s a nice, clever, and clear pattern.
We have a front-loading washer, and I wasn’t sure how felting was going to go – I hadn’t actually felted anything in years, and that was back when I had a top-loader. Turns out I shouldn’t have worried, it turned out fine.
They’re still going to wear through at some point, but neither of us will feel all that bad about it by then, I think. T should get plenty of use out of them before then. And these took me so little time to make, and they were pretty fun too, so it won’t be that big of a deal to reknit them.
Also? He’s worn them pretty much every day since I finished them. So, success!
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