Tuesday, March 11, 2008

My own private Mary Jane slippers

Suddenly occurred to me that I needed home slippers, warm, machine washable, and most important of all, unique :)

At first I tried knitting like knitting socks, than I gave up, because they wouldn't be warm enough to walk on ceramic or marble floor, so I unravelled it. Then I decided making something crocheting: I did the sole first, before deciding how to do the upper part.

It all came improvisationally, I tried a few times to give the round and fit shape, and succeeded (there is a little fault, but goes away while wearing) .
And there had to be buttons and they had to be catching, so I dived in mom's old-buttons box and came back with these strikingly yellow ones, vintage I may say.

The result was quite satisfying for me. I wear them all the time except either when they are being washed or getting dried :)
It is sort of hard for me to write a full pattern, but I can give you some numbers so that you will have a starting point. I used a bulky wool/acrylic blend yarn with 9 mm crochet hook. The yarn is actually suitable knitting with 10 mm needles, but I had to have my slippers thicker and firmer. I started with 6 chains after the initial loop, and then continued on the next row with single crocheting every chain so I had 5 stitches (some experienced crocheters will know what I am talking about). After that, I increased the first and the last stitches of the rows by two (made one stitch two stitches) until I had 13 stitches (I'm not superstitious, moreover, I have a thing for prime numbers :) . After it was my sole length, I decreased, as I had increased, to 5 stitches. This is the sole, then I picked stitches and crocheted in the round, shaped (by decreasing), and finished. That easy... ;)

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