These are Ugly Slippers

I’m not being too critical when I say that these are ugly slippers. My husband disagrees with me, he thinks they’re “awesome.” But he’s being nice, and I’m not being hard on myself. They’re pretty ugly. I might even say damn ugly slippers. First off, they don’t match. One has a sort of square toe, the other a rounded toe. Gracefully the strap made it to roughly the same place on my foot, despite my best efforts to move it closer to my ankle on the second slipper (the one on the right). If I fold one in half it doesn’t even match itself.

Second, the construction is really shoddy. Truthfully, I did make these myself. This isn’t the half-hearted creation of a 6th grade art project, despite what it may seem. I think it comes down to making sure my yarn is in the right spot when I change sides. And also maybe not be so stubborn when it comes to looking up YouTube videos on how to complete a stitch. It’d be great to have someone by constantly as I knit to ask them questions. I’ve knitted with friends before and they’ve been helpful, but I feel like a pest asking questions all the time.

Cotton says, "These slippers are ugly, but I'm cute."

You might think that if I thought these were so ugly that I should just remake them. I did. More than once. After awhile I just got tired of working on them. And I lost one of my pages of instruction and kind of made up how to finish the slipper (hence one round toe). The instructions (in rather poor English, which could have been a problem) tell me that I could finish my slippers by “making crochet” around the edges. That would cover up some of my mistakes and make the slippers look actually cute. However, I don’t know how to make crochet and if I learned on these slippers they would probably turn out worse.

At least I’ve made cute things before and I can take solace in this picture. Maybe the socks I’ll make for Andy will turn out more like my last knitting project.

Knitting Socks

Happy New Year! It's a bit late, but I'm starting this new year off on the right foot, with a new pair of socks. My knitting experience has been limited to hats and scarves so I thought it was time to branch out and make something different.

Socks have thus far been the most difficult thing I've knit. Everything went smooth from the cuff on down, and then... the heel. Heels of socks really hadn't made it on my radar of something to consider, until I tried to make one. Sometime, take a look at the heel of your sock. It's quite intricate.

After watching many YouTube videos, I attached the heel, flap, cup, gusset and all. It turned out to be quite a satisfying thing to make. It was tricky without being too difficult and discouraging. The way the stitches join and turn is wonderful, I'm amazed that I actually made it.

After admiring my heel for awhile, the rest of the sock was a breeze. Except that my ball of yarn was getting smaller and smaller. I worried I wouldn't have enough to finish. So my first sock ended up being a little shorter in the foot than preferable. I don't know how to undo it and make it longer, but it's not too bad. So I have one good fitting sock and one tighter, but wearable sock.

Yesterday I wore my new socks all day and they were nice and comfortable. I thought they may be a bit warm since they're made of wool, but they weren't too toasty at all. Even the short one wasn't noticeable.

My next knitting project is making fingerless gloves for myself, then I will tackle making my husband socks.