Knitted and felted clogs

I finished a pair of knitted and felted clog slippers today. Hallelujah.

I say "hallelujah" because although I've made three or four pairs of these slippers in the past, I seemed to have a brain freeze while making this pair.

To be more specific, I had one of the slippers almost completed but couldn't seem to get the stitch count to come out correctly. Assuming I'd messed up somewhere, I raveled out the whole darned slipper and knit it again, only to again have trouble with the stitch count.

I was on the verge of throwing in the towel, declaring I was no longer capable of knitting this pattern, and finding a friendlier item to knit, when suddenly a light went off: I realized I'd been misreading one step of the directions. That first slipper I'd knit and raveled? It was correct; there was no need to have raveled it.

So in essence I've knit three slippers in order to get one pair.

This pattern is actually very clever. It results in a pair of warm, cozy slippers that actually do look like clogs.

I made a pair for myself a few years ago and wore them out. Although the sole is a double-layer of knitting, it can't hold up to constant wear around the house.

I made a pair for a niece, too, and she loved hers as much as I loved mine, but they, too wore out after awhile.

I'm hoping to extend the life of this pair by whip-stitching rubberized shelf-lining patches to the bottom of each slipper. I've read that this works in protecting the sole from wear. We shall see.

Before tossing the slippers into the washing machine to felt them, they are huge. I'm not exaggerating. This pair was probably a size 13, minimum. I've got them felted down to a size 6, I think. Size 6 is what the recipient of them wears, anyway, so I hope these fit.

I've also shaved them. That's right, shaved them. This particular wool yarn was very fuzzy after being felted. Perhaps you can see the difference between this photo and the last photo, pre- and post-shaving.

The pattern is by Fiber Trends; the yarn I used is by Knit One, Crochet, too. When I've made these slippers previously, I've used good, old Paton's Classic Wool yarn. It's a wonderful yarn for felting.

Anyway, these clogs will go into a bureau drawer upstairs for safe keeping. Then they'll be given as a gift at Christmas.