Felted Ballet Slippers Part 1

Sunday morning at the crack of noon, I was at Gina Brown's waiting for them to open so I could buy supplies to make the felted slippers in the previous post. I was in the store for more than half an hour before I even got around to looking for what I went there to buy. Ooh, aah, I'm like a kid in a candy store when I'm in a yarn shop. Just look at all this wonderful yarn! (I didn't have time to focus properly because I was trying to be sneaky)




I finally got down to business and picked out some beautiful cranberry- coloured wool, some gorgeous matching buttons and new needles, because I don't own any as large as what the pattern calls for. When I got to the counter, I asked for clarification on the needle sizes and the nice lady advised that I had the wrong size, and also the wrong kind of wool and pointed me in the right direction. Of course the right section didn't contain any cranberry wool, so I had to change the plan. I chose some beautiful turquoisey/teal instead. Sadly, there were no matching buttons. I'm not sure why I can't get a photo with a true colour in the blue green range, but I've tried 3 different cameras, and the results are all the same. Trust me, this is much brighter than shown. This one was taken outside (in a snow bank!) in an effort to get natural light. Still not good. I've given up as you'll see by the wide range of colours in the rest of the photos.




I have never bought wool in a skein like this before, and I wasn't sure how to attack it. Again, the nice lady was very helpful. She showed me how to unfold it, and how to find the end, and explained that I could loop it around a kitchen chair while rolling it into a ball. Then, I guess because it's reasonable to assume that someone who doesn't know how to unfold a hank of wool also doesn't know how to roll wool into a ball, she demonstrated that also. Really!
I rushed home with my rather expensive bag of goodies and got right to work. (20 bucks for the needles! Yes, bamboo are nicer to work with than metal, but sheesh!)
The grey chair is exactly the right size to hold the (bright blue) wool.




I guess I should've paid more attention during the ball winding demo, I ended up in a (royal blue) knot.




Cast on, work 3 rows, rip it out. Cast on again, work 8 rows, rip it out. Cast on yet again, work 39 rows, rip it out...
Okay, so maybe I should SLOW THE HELL DOWN and read the pattern in its entirety before galloping ahead. Yes, good idea.
Cast on, managed to work all 47 rows without messing up, and now have the first little (green) piece completed. Only 7 more to go...
Um, does this look like a shoe to you?

Knitting

Okay, this little tea cosy was just to get me knitting again. A warm-up, so to speak.




I'm not a particularly confident knitter, so I needed a quick, easy project to get me motivated and in the hang of reading patterns again.
This went relatively quickly. Except for that damned line 14 which I knit and unknit no less than 3 times! Grrrrrrr! My fault, not the pattern.

I recently joined Ravelry.com. (My user name is Shantaz. If you're a member, look for me). It's an amazing resource for all kinds of fiber arts. Lots of free patterns, and lots of pictures of completed projects, so you can see how things turn out when produced by other people. (As opposed to the perfect photos on the patterns) Different colours, different types of yarn, added personal touches, and lots of helpful comments.
There's a library to store patterns and a project log to keep track of what type of yarn was used, the needle or hook size, and any other notes you want to make. You can also add photos of your work in progress, the finished products, or your dog, or whatever. It appears to be unlimited.
These little felted slippers are the reason that I joined Ravelry in the first place. Aren't they cute?




This pattern wasn't free, but could be downloaded at a nominal cost through Ravelry. I scoured the photo gallery of slippers completed using it.




TL: Amongthetrees, TR:OCD
BL: Deborahanne, BR: Heidijoh




TL: Sheilaw, TR: Traceynicole
BL: Ginaknits, BR: Lindaac

(Love the buttons on the green ones!). Over 6000 variations, and most of the knitters said that the pattern was easy to follow, and that they were happy with the results. Alrighty then, let's give them a go. Just waiting for Gina Brown's (yarn store) to open.

Oh, I've never felted anything before (not intentionally at least), so even if I manage to do a good job knitting, there's still plenty of opportunity to mess them up during that process :)