felted clog slippers

so, after a few practice swatches and dish rags to get myself going with basic knitting, i decided to attempt the felted clog slippers that had initially lured me to learn to knit in the first place. admittedly, the pattern was not always easy for me and i did have to reach out to sweet tracie to help me along a few times, but still, they turned out awsome. and, i really do think it is a great first project because you have a chance to learn a lot of different techniques and felting is a beautiful way to literally erase your mistakes. all you need to felt is 100% wool yarn (you can mix a little mohair or novelty yarn in too, but only a little), a top loading washer with a good agitation setting, and hot water. the yarn ends up fusing together and you don't even see the stitches. so these first clogs were made with mike in mind and ended up a perfect fit.

yarn: lion brand, lion wool, 100% wool
weight: worsted
colors: 125 trim/bottom & 132 main

after mike's, i made an all black pair for erik, which i don't have a picture of. unfortunately they don't look as nice as the two tone color. they seem to pick up a lot of lint and other stuff, which shows up a lot on the black. erik said he still liked them and he did wear them a few times, but they have been resting in my arctic entry for probably 6 of their 8 month life. sad.


i just loved making these slippers so much that i kept on going. next pair was for my mom. i again went for the same color for the whole thing, but this time with a variegated yarn and it turned out great. i didn't get a picture when i made them, but this one was taken after she had been wearing them for about 6 months.

yarn: lion brand, lion wool prints, 100% wool
weight: worsted
color: 201

after taking a break from the slippers and trying a few other patterns, i came back to them to make a pair for my friend kelly. this time i experimented with an i-cord swirled around on top. i like how it turned out, but i think it will be better next time with a little bit smaller i-cord. kelly has raved about these slippers and says they fit her feet perfectly. i love that. and i love that she lovingly refers to them as her "love shoes".

trim and bottom
yarn: brown sheep company, lamb's pride, 85% wool, 15% mohair
weight: worsted
color: M181

main
yarn: lion brand, fisherman's wool, 100% pure virgin wool with natural oils
weight: worsted
color: 126

if you are interested in making these for yourself, you can get the pattern online from Fiber Trends.

i generally like to use fairly high quality yarn for my projects, but i've found that with felting, even the more inexpensive yarn works beautifully. bonus! for all of these slippers i used regular old lion's brand 100% wool, worsted weight yarn. you can find this anywhere from fred meyer to joanne's. its cheap and it felts up great. the only limitation is color. for kelly's slippers i wanted a better selection of color so i ended up also using lamb's pride, which is a little more expensive and generally only found in quality yarn shops. the selection of colors is fantastic though and is worth the extra dough i think. i do find that the lamb's pride also seems to ball up a little bit less after its felted.

i'm hoping to knit myself a pair before winter rolls around again, but somehow knitting for others is much more fun, so we'll see?