Knittin' it up!

I've been on a knitting kick lately.  Between Christmas presents and friends having babies, I've found plenty of reasons to knit hats.  Here's a few:

My Mom's Christmas present:  The yarn was a great bamboo/silk blend by Ella Rae.  The pattern came from Marnie Maclean Designs. It was fun to knit. I think next time I'll make the smaller size though.

 

Orange Crush: A cute, funky yarn that varies between thin and threadlike to soft and fluffy.

The Scarlett Hat and Emily Hat:  Made for two adorable little girls.  I made myself learn to crochet the flowers. The hats are made from different soft merino wool yarns.  The Emily hat has two flowers (kind of hard to see, my camera sucks!)

Emily Hat

Scarlett Hat

And that's about it!  What have you been knitting lately?

Cozy Feet

The other day on Pinterest I saw a cute "Free" pattern for Cozy Toes slippers.  Like many of the people who clicked on the link, I was disappointed to find out that while pattern was free, the directions weren't. In order to get the directions you had to buy a SewNews Magazine.  LAME!

I decided to try to piece the pattern together and whip up the slippers for a Christmas gift. I took a few short cuts :) They turned out pretty cute (although I've decided I need to work on my serging skills).

Fabric- I found some cute double sided fabric at Wally-world. It was fake sheep shearling on one side and a pink leopard almost-suede feeling on the other side. I got 1/2 a yard, which was way more than necessary- I think I used about 1/4 of a yard of it.

Notions: thread, rick rack, Wooly nylon for the serger.

Directions:
-Download and print off the pattern from SewNews . 

-Cut the pattern bigger than what you wear.  One commenter said she cut a '7' for a size 5.  I cut out the 11 for a size 9 foot.  Fit the patter to your foot before you cut out the fabric!

- I wanted to add a rick-rack tie so the wearer could adjust the fit a little more. To make the holes I used my button hole foot and made two button holes about 1/2" apart.  I placed two of these every 2 inches.  The holes at the heel are 1 and 1/4" from the edge (when you sew the ends together the holes should be about 2" apart).  Place the holes on the top of the slipper about 2"- adjust for preference.

-Sew the two sides together at each end (1/4" seam allowance).

- Pin and sew the sides to the sole of the slipper. I pinned the fabric pattern sides together so that when I was done sewing the seam was on the inside of the slipper.

-Using wooly nylon for a round edge, serge the edge of the top. 

-Baste the top to the toe part of the slipper.

- Starting at the heel part of the slipper, serge around the entire perimeter of the slipper.

-Remove basting thread

-Weave rick-rack through holes and tie in bow over top of slipper.

Viola!  Cozy Feet!  I hope my brother-in-law's girlfriend likes them. The sides are a bit flimsy, so if you don't use double sided fabric, you might try putting interfacing in between the two layers.