Adventures of a Desi KnitterKnitting (and now sewing!) keeps an Indian academic sane in the States. Almost.

Mopping up the stash, a.k.a. Felted Clogs

§ November 4th, 2007 § Filed under Simpler stuff, Socks § 8 Comments

Last week, one of my wear-at-home slippers gave way, and I realised I needed a new pair. Not a big deal, except I have had this pair for nineteen years. I bought them in 1988, the summer before I went away to junior college in Pune, amidst much excitement about life on my own in a hostel. These slippers have been with me through college, grad school, relationships, jobs, cities and countries. It was only after one of them tore that I realised how long it had been – do you blame me for mourning their passing?

I will have the torn slipper resewed (you can see it in the picture above), but in the meantime I needed a new pair. Rather than the boring option of buying a pair from the store, I first tried to get one by writing soulful poetry (come on, bad limericks can be soulful, you just need the right attitude!) for a contest on Ruth’s blog. Alas, she preferred a more prosaic (and, alright, deserving) entry, so there ended that.

So, I made a pair of the quick and ever-popular Felted Clogs (by Bev Galeskas/Fiber Trends) myself. Inspired by Ruth, I used the opportunity to mop up some loose skeins in my stash. Amazingly enough, the multicoloured clogs did not result in an ugly, mismatched pair (as I’d almost hoped!).
Slipper ingredients:
*The tannish body is 3 skeins of Indiecita Alpaca in shades of beige, brown and browner (Boy is this alpaca hairy after felting!).
*The blue inner soles are Cascade 220.
*The reddish cuffs and one of the outer soles are Elann Peruvian Sierra Aran and Elann Highland Chunky.
*All on size 11 needles.
Am delighted to say that nearly all of these skeins (roughly 100 yards each, give or take), were used up. I can use the remaining bits as lifelines, stitch holders, markers, etc.

I never stop wondering at the magic of felting. All yarns, surprisingly, felted relatively equally too. The slippers took me two rounds of a hot wash in the top loader at the laundromat, with periodic dunking in some cold water. Now, trimmed and dry, they are snug on my feet. They’re not really a replacement for my old slippers, but I think they will do nicely. I do need to get some bottoms for them, though, because they are a little, well, slippery on the wood floor.