Christmas Wrap-Up

So it turns out I was a bit over ambitious in my Christmas plans. Apparently I was too busy sunbathing in Baja to knit much. Who knew that working with wool while covered with sunblock, sand and baby slobber would be rather unappealing and tricky? I did get a few projects done, however, and now that we've finished up our third and final gift-giving session, I'm finally at liberty to divulge what ended up getting made.

Among the little knit projects that made it onto (and off!) my needles (Toasty, Thermis, Turn a Square, Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, Fetching, Plum Blossom Mittens, and a seed stitch eternity scarf of my own devising) there was one stand-out pattern. A pattern so quick, simple, and fun that I ended up making seven (!) pairs, two of them finished Christmas morning.  And only one pair was for me. They're the felted slippers from French Press Knits, and they are a little bit of magic.

They start with a few pieces of oddly-shaped knit work


Which, after a little seaming, become grossly over-sized slipper-shaped oddities
 

Which, after felting


and finishing become adorable house slippers!


From start to finish, I can make a pair of these in under two hours, including seaming (and there is a lot of seaming but it's of the "just sew those two pieces together any which way" variety that can be done while your baby is chewing the other end of your work.)  So after making my own pair, I whipped up six more pairs for gift giving.  I gave them out pre-felted with the idea that we'd have a felting party after opening presents on Christmas morning.  



Another lovely feature of this pattern is that they travel well.  They were made in Mexico, finished in California and I'm now wearing them in my sister-in-law's house in Pau, in the southwest of France. They pack well and stand up to getting shoved into a suitcase. And they look great with my new skinny jeans which is handy because, despite being told that all the cool kids are wearing skinny jeans, I've yet to be brave enough to wear them out of the house.