My First Attempt at Slippers

I've been wanting to try a pair of slippers for a while now. I have this black yarn that's kind of beaten up because it's been around for a while, so I figured I could make a trial pair of slippers with this yarn for myself. If there are mistakes, no big deal. I have also been dying to try the magic loop method. I poked around Ravelry, and much to my surprise, all of the types of slippers that I want to make aren't knitted in the round but on two needles. This was a little off-putting, but I don't want to dive into a pair of socks yet, and I did still want to use of that black yarn, so I picked a pattern that looked reasonable in the pattern as well as in the picture and set off.

I decided to practice my long tail cast-on for this project because I've only even tried it once before and then it was for a project that I frogged and haven't restarted yet. It took me three tries to cast on because the first time I didn't use enough yarn for the tail, the second time I felt like I had too much, and the third time I finally got it.

As I was knitting the first 14 rows of the pattern which are all worked in garter stitch, I started looking down at my ball of black yarn and started getting paranoid that I wouldn't have enough. At that point I decided I'd also work in some of the white yarn I have. I know there's going to be more of it than I need after I finish boyfriend's mittens, but I've never made this pattern before, and I wasn't sure how much of the white yarn the slippers would take if I knit the stockinette stitch body of them with the white. I finally decided that I could also start pulling from the center of the skein I'm using for boyfriend's belt since he wouldn't miss just a little bit.

Then I had to figure out when I was going to switch colors. I decided to do all of the garter stitch in the black, and then for the body have 2 rows of black in the middle, 4 rows of white on either side of it so it would really pop, and 4 rows of grey beyond the white on each side. Also by keeping each color in even numbers of rows, I kept the funny multi-colored purl side all on the inside of the slipper, although I don't think it really looks to bad. I almost wish it were the outside of the slipper.

I knitted the slipper with US 6 needles, and when I was binding off, the pattern suggested that I use a size 8 or 9 needle. I took a minute and decided on the 8, and now I wish I'd used the 9 because the cuff is a little tight, but not really uncomfortably so, so I guess it's alright.

I knitted one entire slipper yesterday. Partially because once I start decreasing I don't like to stop in case I get confused, although in this instance I don't think that would have been really possible, but partially because I still have a ton of time on my hands while I continue to look for a job. But I get lots of knitting and baking done.

Finally, I tried the slipper on after I made it and was pretty disappointed with my afternoon of work. The toe is weirdly pointy and there's a seam right up the middle of the sole which drives me crazy. I had boyfriend try it on, and he said it wasn't as bad as I seem to think. Still, I think I am going to give them as a Christmas gift after all. I think they look nice, they're reasonably comfortable, and they don't take long to make. Plus the color changes keep my interest.

There are a few things I'm going to do differently when I knit up the other slipper, but I haven't totally decided what yet because obviously I want them to look the same even if it means sacrificing a better way of making them.

Happy knitting!

Irish Flag Scarf

This is the beginning of the scarf I'm knitting for Shane. It's going to be a repetition of the Irish flag, you guessed it, in scarf form. He's Irish and requested that I knit him this scarf after being unable to find a similar scarf at Goodwill. We got there too late and someone had already snatched it. Major bummer. So I'm knitting him this one. Hopefully it'll be better than the other one because it will be exactly what he wants, at least as far as length and width. My cat is currently rolling all over it. I guess that means he likes it which must be a compliment.

I'm using US 8 (5mm) needles. 30 rows of 40 stitches per color, all knit stitch. I think it looks pretty nice so far, if I do say so myself. I'm just using Red Heart Super Saver yarn. It's acrylic and so a pain in the ass to block because wet blocking doesn't work, but it's cheap and more or less does the trick. I'm pretty pleased with the green and orange, but for whatever reason the white is pretty coarse, and I'm afraid it will be itchy. Maybe I'm just imagining it; or maybe the green and orange, which are very soft for Red Heart, will make up for it; or maybe it just needs to be washed. I hope it works out, though.

This is going to be the largest thing to date that I've made (and completed). I make a lot of hats. I love knitting hats. I've also done a headband which was very quick. And I have made some scarves before, but this one is wider than any of those, and I have a feeling Shane's going to want it to be incredibly long. Which is fine. As long as he doesn't expect it until next Christmas.

I'm really great about getting obsessed with things. Once it was baking. There was a period when i made cookies for everything. And not just a batch of chocolate chip cookies. We're talking elaborately decorated cookies. For example, in high school, a girl on my cross country team who I'd gotten somewhat close to had her birthday during the season, so I made cookies that spelled out "Happy Birthday E----" and a giant cookie for her proclaiming her new age. Or cooking or crocheting or knitting and sewing. Sometimes I'll hole up in my room for days or weeks at a time and take copious notes and study which has been my obsession for the last several months as I draw terrifyingly close to the end of my undergrad degree. Or I'll dig out some markers and write poetry all over my windows. (That one really weirded my roommate out when I lived in the dorms.) Sometimes I'll sit in front of my computer for days, barely taking time to eat or sleep, and just write forever. I've pumped out more than one short story that way. Or reading. There was a summer some years ago when I read no less than a book a day. Sometimes it's TV shows. I've watched seasons upon seasons of shows for days on end. Sometimes, to my embarrassment, it's FaceBook games. You know. My mother says I have a one track mind. I like to think of it as getting "locked on," to reference Skins.

Tangent aside, I really like the way this is looking. I kind of wish I had gone with stockinette stitch, but I really don't feel like starting over. I've also never worked with multiple colors before. I was surprised with how easy it was to switch colors. There will potentially be an update this evening to show how much progress I made today with this scarf. My goal is to at least to get back into green tonight.

PS. I hope the knitwitch doesn't mind me linking to her how-to's, but she's my favorite YouTube how-to for knitting.

UPDATE: I did get through the orange and back to the green like I hoped. Sorry the color's a little wonky. I had natural light earlier, but now it's dark, so I only have lamplight which makes everything yellow. And I'm using a webcam, so everything looks a little wonky always.