so a few months ago, my friend sage handed me some yarn (coincidentally, sort of sage-colored) left over from a play and dropped the hint, “no one’s ever knitted me anything before…” so over my ski weekend in idaho last month i knit these giant socks and then felted them down to size in the washing machine. felting really is sort of a magic process. ten minutes of agitation in a hot, soapy washing machine and these baggy long socks shrank up into a nice, thick, dense sort of felt slipper.

after felting them i stretched them over a shoe form (having access to all the resources of a costume shop is so handy), and tucked newspaper around it to get the loose, slip-on shape i wanted. the toes came out sort of pointy (i’d recommend altering the pattern so the toes come out rounder next time), so i decided just to go with it and make curled up elf toes. then i left them on a cool air vent to dry overnight and poof! slippers. this is a great, easy project. good for understanding the fundamentals of making a sock, since you’re basically knitting a size 25 sock and then shrinking it down.

i’d make myself a pair if i wasn’t so damn allergic to wool!

pattern was courtesy of knitty.com.