Halfway
Ok so think of this as a halfway point between crumpled heap and properly blocked. This is just shoved onto a foot form (they're called lasts, they're what they used to make shoes around, they're damn handy for blocking slippers), but not actually off the needles or subjected to the indignities of an hour or so in a bowl of water. This is just because I couldn't bear to leave the other pic as your last sight of the slipper for a while, crumpled as it was, so I needed to give it a slightly more structured view. Just in [...]
Foot-ish
Those of you who said slipper are absolutely correct. Those of you concerned that this looks like a crumpled heap of bad ideas and dashed dreams are also correct. But blocking fixed a multitude of sins. And every slipper I've ever made looks real damn funny at this point in the proceedings. And then you shove something foot-ish in there, and it springs into shape, and all your doubts are assuaged. At least all of the slipper-based doubts. I'm not really qualified to handle any larger concerns. But I can confidently say this will look more like a slipper and [...]
Peculiar
There, does that help a bit? I mean possibly not, I fully admit it's still a bit...peculiar. But at least it feels a little more intentionally peculiar to me at this point! Do you know what it is yet?
Deep breath
This is one of those projects that absolutely will look like you're doing something wrong for quite some time. It eventually sorts itself out, I promise. But there's a good long while early on where you simply have to take deep breaths and trust the process.
Close but…
Sigh. This is like...four or five stitches different from what it needs to be. Which means it is about to be ripped. But I'm showing it to you beforehand in case it helps with guessing what I'm making...
And closer still
Theeeere we go, that will work nicely. Any guesses what this is for? I'm not saying until we're so far along it's totally obvious...
Second verse, same as the first
I feel like there should be some way to make 'and then do it all again' more interesting than it is. Now mind you, I haven't found that way. But I do think there should be one. So let's all just sort of communally agree to nod along and pretend that knitting slipper (or sock...or mitt) number two posed all sorts of unexpected challenges and perplexing developments. Or we could just sort of revel in something going smoothly and easily and maybe admit that not every bit of knitting needs to be a breathless tale of death defying adventure. Sometimes [...]
This part’s quick
Once these join up, they zip right along. I'm not sure why I knit faster in the round, but somehow I really really do. This brings up a handy opportunity to be obnoxiously preachy (what fun, I'm sure you're thrilled!). Lots of folks get a different gauge when they knit in the round than when they knit flat. The only way to know for sure if you do is...you guessed it...to swatch. Swatch both in the round and flat. Which I know is not what you want to hear. But on projects like this where you knit both flat and in [...]
Like a weed
Now you it's time to basically sit back and watch this grow. The sides and bottom of the slipper sort of grow out of the bit on the back. There's a stage there in the middle where it looks a little menacing (lots of needles because the fabric is U-shaped, even though you're knitting flat...if you were less stubborn than me and used circular needles it would be less prickly at this stage). But after a while things calm down and you just knit and knit and knit until the slipper gets close to where you want it to join [...]
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