Toasty Toes

Considering how cold and snowy it's been, it's lucky that I just completed a project that has been keeping my feet warm.  As my husband will tell you, my feet are always cold - and when I say cold, I mean make-you-scream-out-in-the-night-cold, if they should happen to touch your defenseless leg in bed.  So, when I say that my feet are actually warm right now, you should imagine a choir of angels singing in the background.

The miracle fabric to make my cold toes happy?  Wool, of course! I mean, duh, right?  I'm not talking Smart Wool socks here, I'm talking felted.  wool.  slippers.  Oh yes. 

The gorgeous pattern is from French Press Knits, and you too can purchase, download and start creating your own.  The pattern works up very quickly on size 15 needles.  You work the souls, sides, then straps, sew your slipper together, then felt.  Here is the giant clown-slipper that results, pre-felting.

And, brought to you by the miracle of hot water - here is what they look like now! 

And here is what my feet look like:

They look happy, right?  It's cause they're so, so warm. 

This was a highly gratifying project.  It was quick, painless and now I have custom slippers!  I was thinking about sewing some black leather onto the bottoms, but then I realized I might not be able to slide around on the floor if I did, and what's the fun in that?  They were also relatively cheap to make.  I used Pattons Classic Wool, purchased on sale at Joann's.  The resulting fabric is shockingly soft, and really traps the warmth in the way a wool sock never can.  Add in a regular old sock, and you're cooking with Crisco people. 

I never thought I'd get into felting, but now that I've started, I'm not sure I can stop.  Hopefully there's a support group out there somewhere...