Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Slippers & Surprises...

First surprise, YarnHarlot knits faster than I do. She claims on her blog that this project took her 1.5 hours to complete. Maybe time moves more slowly in Canada but in these parts it took about 3 hours which means she knits twice as fast as I do. I suspect she knits even faster than that especially since she's got the determination of a gazelle running from a tiger and I have the attention span of a flea. Did you see her Ravelympics Sweater? Holy Moly! Back to the matter at hand, seaming took another hour. In total, this project took me 4 hours (see how good I am at math)!

This is how the mess starts....
Second surprise...felting does in fact overlook the sins of terrible seaming. The first slipper was joined so poorly, I considered scraping the whole project. The second was seamed with a bit more expertise and in the end, wasn't too bad. I continued under the premise that in felting no one would know. "I can flatten out this super thick, bulky spot after it's felted, yeah, sure I can." If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know I hate finishing. It's tedious and I'm not good at it. Enough said!


You'll feel better once they're assembled.


Third surprise...gauge actually matters. I know , I know, it's the basis of all knitting projects but with felting I always think I get a free pass. My tension was a little loose but I continued on since I didn't think I had a size 13 needle. Yeah, it's knit on really big needles (size 15 US) which is why it's such a quick project. I know, like the math, more earth-shattering news. I now know that the seaming problems were due to the over sized stitch size by not using the right size needle. I guess I'm a loose knitter, more surprises!


And then you'll feel even better once they're felted.

Final surprise...I really like this pattern. If you knit these slippers, search YouTube for "seaming french press slippers", the tutorial is excellent and takes all the guesswork out of the process (except for how her stitches line up so nicely and mine well, didn't). It's definitely an afternoon project and one that I highly recommend as a quick gift. I wish the photo was better, the yarn is a spectacular color and the sparkly, flower buttons are perfect for my niece!

This pattern is the French Press Slippers by Melynda Bernardi. It's $7 bucks but well worth it, not just for the pattern but for the tutorial on YouTube as well. Oh, one more thing, be sure to check out the minimal errata on her blog as well, it's very minor but helpful. Go Melynda!

7 comments:

Dave Daniels said...

Mmmm, those will be so pretty to wear on the beach in the mornings. Beautiful!
And, you may not be as fast as YH, but you're much faster than I.

Melanie said...

Of course time moves more slowly in Canada. It's all that cold, don'tcha know.

Love the slippers! I've heard good things about this pattern from someone in my knitting group (also from Florida). She liked it so much that she made a pair for herself and then another for her mom.

garret said...

That looks real good. You may not knit fast but you knit very well.

Krystal said...

For someone who doesn't knit fast and hates seeming, they turned out really cute!!! I'm sure she's gonna love them!

Krystal said...

Ooops, I meant 'SEAMING'. I'm sorry I can't spell correctly today.

Lisa said...

Lucky Niece! She will look beautiful wearing these!

As for knitting as fast as the YH, don't worry....she is super human and knits faster than most of us....

Now I will be forced to try felting, as these are just too darned adorable!

Susie said...

These are adorable! I'm not a gauge girl. I figure whatever I make will fit somebody I know!