Seamed slippers – a pattern

A reader of my last post needed a simpler slipper pattern that did not require double-pointed needles, knitting in the round or a lot of increasing or decreasing of stitches.

So I found the original pattern from my grandmother and made it into a pdf for you to save for yourself.   These are the slippers that my grandmother and my aunt made for many, many years.  I remember my mom was collecting clothing for a rummage sale and someone donated a hand knit wool dress.  It was purple with hot pink, grey, and white stripes and easy to see why it had been donated.  My grandmother ripped the dress apart and saved the yarn.  I have no idea how many of these slippers she and my aunt made with this yarn but we received some variation of purple slippers for years and years and years.  This is not an original design and you can do a search to find many variations on this pattern.

The pattern is easy and knitted flat.  It’s a great beginner pattern for someone learning how to knit and purl.  There are two decrease rows.  Two seams are sewn for each slipper.  The end result is almost the same as the seamless slipper but the heel part is a bit wonky as it isn’t shaped quite the same.

Here’s a photo of the bottom and back seam.  Once on the foot, the sole evens out and fits fine.  It just looks weird at first.  Have fun and let me know if you make these.

seamed-slippers-002

The pattern is listed on the “My Designs” tab at the top of this post as a pdf pattern.

Gift idea for mother-to-be

Looking for a useful but unique gift for a new mom or mother-to-be?  Make some burp cloths.

I made these a few weeks ago for Mr. Aitch’s niece who’s expecting her first baby in February.  I used a few different prints and coordianted them with the baby bedding.

The tutorial is on my tutorial page.  You can make two out of one  yard of flannel or get creative and use two ro more coordinating prints and solids.  My original ones were made out of leftover pieces of flannel as well as some cut up flannel sheets and even a few of Mr. Aitch’s too-small-but-still-good flannel shirts.  Just make sure you pre-shrink the flannel as it will shrink…A LOT!!  I can’t stress that enough.  Pre-shrink!!

Click here for more info then print out the directions and make a mom happy.

New Pattern – Olive Oil Drip Catcher

Yesterday I posted a picture of a new pattern I made up using a suggestion from my brother:  The Olive Oil Drip Catcher.

In case you missed the post, it’s a small collar that fits around an olive oil bottle to catch the drips regardless of the “dripless” claim.

This little drip catcher uses 14 yards (depending on your mileage) of superwash fingering weight yarn perfect for all those bits of sock yarn you have left over wanting to be something useful.

Click on “My Designs” and “Olive Oil Drip Catcher” in the header bar for the link and let me know what you think!

Olive oil bottle sleeve

When Mr. Aitch and I went to visit my brother and sister-in-law in New Hampshire last month, I took along some knitting.  We went on the Harley so it had to be small knitting.

That’s the knitting bag I won from Dyed in the Wool along with a pattern for a wine bottle sleeve, needles, notions bag, and yarn.

It all fitted in there quite nicely.  I knitted a wine bottle sleeve for them one evening after dinner.

And they actually use it!

My sister-in-law’s sister visited them last week and she remarked about how wonderful the wine bottle sleeve was for catching drips.  If it was a bit larger around and shorter, it would be perfect to catch the drips on a bottle of olive oil.

So I manipulated the pattern and came up with this:

It actually folds down so it’s got two layers to absorb the drips.  Plus it’s larger around.  And shorter.  And has a “fold” line knitted into it.  And the ribbing is different.  And uses less than 14 yards of sock yarn.

Do all those changes make it publishable?  As a free pattern?