Friday, January 25, 2013

Crocheted Slippers

I've been longing to crochet slippers for quite a while. I found a cute pair at this site. This led me to the original pattern, given at this site. These yarn pros convinced me that slippers are easy-peasy. I did tweak their patterns some, as I'll discuss at the end of this post.
This is the first pair, following closely the original pattern, until I got to the heel. I could tell the slippers would be way too long, so I stopped with row 22. Here's the tidy heel:
They're cute, but they're too wide for my feet. I added the tie across the top of the foot, so they could be tightened a bit, if need be.
If you look carefully, you can see how I threaded the chain rope through the stitches on the top of the slipper, so it could be tightened there. It worked very well for giving some adjustment to the sizing.
Then I started a second pair. This time I wanted a pair that fit my size 9 foot like a glove. I narrowed the slipper from the very beginning at the toe.
When adding double crochets to the rows toward the back of the slipper this is how it's done at the end of the rows. You chain 3, and then double crochet immediately into the base of the stitch from which the chains come.
These turned out lovely. I added a green flower to each one, to spruce them up.
From the side. You can really see in this photo that I broke my left foot about 12 years ago. See how the top of the left foot bumps out more, and I have trouble turning it all the way?
Here's the directions I came up with for the pink slippers.  I used a size G hook and Impeccable yarn, which is acrylic worsted weight.

Row 1: Chain 4 and use a slip stitch to form a loop.
Row 2: Chain 3 (as your 1st DC) and then do 6 DC in the loop. Close with a sl st.
Row 3 & 4: begin with 3 chains and then do two DC in each stitch.
Row 5-11: begin with 3 chains and do one DC in each stitch. In row 8, I added one more stitch. In these rows, you're making the body of the slipper that goes around your toes and the front of your foot.
Row 12: Turn. Chain 3. DC in the next stitch, and one DC in each of the next 18 stitches. Counting the 3-chain, this gives you a total of 20 stitches around.
Row 13-22: Turn. Chain 3. DC in the next stitch, and one DC in each stitch across. In rows 17 and 21, I added one additional DC at each end of these rows, so that the slipper would come up a little higher as I worked toward the heel (see photo above). Tie off.
Fold the heel end in half and stitch closed on the inside of the slipper, with yarn and a tapestry needle.
I used the trim recommended in the original pattern, with one SC and one chain all the way around.
I'm in the U.S., so my single and double crochets are U.S. standards.
This slipper should give you a nearly perfect size 9 (U.S.). If you need a smaller slipper, look online for a conversion chart for women's shoe sizes and inches in foot length.

1 comment:

Thistle Cove Farm said...

MK, I LOVE these and have sent this post address to my sister; she crochets. Well done, MK!