Slip, slip, slipper, or, More adventures in reading patterns

March 10, 2019

I read, I’m not dyslexic (although I’ve had moments), I’m not by nature averse to learning by reading, but my experience with written instructions has often been frustrating. User manuals. No. Assembly instructions. Nope. Help text online. Eyeroll. So reading knitting patterns in knitting language? Not my first choice for a fun activity. BUT fiber mentor/enabler encouraged two of us students to take a class with her to make felted slippers. Been wanting to try felting so took a step on faith, trusting my mentor, and took a deep breath. Class came with a pre-homework assignment. Get supplies, cast on, knit so far, etc.

Shopping-check. Long tail cast on-ch…. er, need a longer tail. 2^nd try, nope, longer still. OK, need to learn to better estimate long tail cast ons. We used size 13 needles—big honking space needles!—odd after working on the small size 1s to make small travel pin cushions (previous post). We were told to knit loosely because that facilitates felting, but try as I might, knitting loosely doesn’t come naturally and this became particularly evident in subsequent steps. At one point using smaller needles to cast off was helpful, maybe even essential, but on to adventure.

starting long tail cast on at left, color change from grey sole to red top at right

When it came time to felt, we 3 gathered around an old school central agitator washer in my cold basement (ok, it’s not that cold, considering it was in the teens outside). We reviewed what we were supposed to do, but found we’d not taken as detailed notes in class as we might have. Fortunately between the 3 of us, we had what we needed. We put hot water in the tub, put socks in bags to keep extra wool bits from clogging the washer (although I didn’t have a bag for my socks so just threw them in), added a pair of jeans, and let it go. Chairs were pulled up next to a rug on the cement floor, a ceramic heater fired up, and we chatted over tea. We periodically stopped the machine to check on progress. At 5 minutes the slippers had already started felting and the knit stitches (and any mistakes!) were blurring, but the slippers were still huge. The slippers outside the bags seemed to felt faster, which makes sense, since they experienced greater agitation. A couple minutes later mine (made of easy to find Patons Classic Wool, worsted yarn) had suddenly shrunk considerably. Mentor’s nicer, more exclusive yarn acted differently, taking more time to shrink and felt. We tried slippers on to be sure they’d fit, adjusted them (pulling and shaping) to match size, put them in for additional time, tried on again, etc. as needed. Ultimately all 3 sets finished, we gently wrung them out, shaped them, removed extraneous yarn bits (from both the slippers and the washer), stuffed the slippers with plastic bags to retain the shape, and set them out to dry, rotating them a couple times a day. We were told these can take a while to dry but with house humidity below 15% this week, they dried in a few days.