Just a short post today as I have had a bad cold these last few days and none of my ongoing projects are finished yet.
Do you remember these:-
And how I used stuff to make the soles non-slip.
As you can see rather badly, partly because the stuff became very thick once the pot had been opened but also because I am a bit clumsy with things like that.
Well in wear I had two problems because the second coat had made the bobbles too thick and so they hurt my feet and tended to break off.
Eventually I removed most of the bobbles that were left and waited for inspiration and time.
Having looked at all the sew on soles that one could buy – and the prices! I finally decided to try and make my own from dishcloth cotton and silicone sealer. The soles are crocheted not knitted!
This is the result.
I actually made the first one a while ago and unlike the special non-slip sole stuff silicone sealer actually stays at the right consistency weeks later. (I had bought it to use in my shower tray.)
They had been worn when I took this photograph which is why the cotton is not gleaming white.
Of course knitted slippers are fine on carpets but I have a ceramic floor in my kitchen and I wanted to be safe when I went in there. The silicone sealer works well for this.
The soles show a little in use but that means, I hope, that the wool is not rubbing on the floor and since they are sewn on, if the soles wear out before the uppers, I can remove them and make some more.
I am not sure if these should be called slippers as they are fairly basic without non-slip soles so I have called them sock-savers as that is what they were made for –
keeping hand made socks clean and hole-free when running around on carpet.
They are really quick to make.
I started with a pattern I found on the web but I couldn’t get it to work for my feet so I decided to design my own. Something very quick and very simple!
I had some fawn and black yarn left over from when I made this.
I thought these would be good colours to use as then they wouldn’t show the dirt.
So I used one strand of each and a – K (US), 3 (UK), 6.5mm – hook.
Really easy!
Just 10 trebles (US – dc) into a magic loop then two trebles into each treble on the next row. A few rows round and round until they cover the toes then some more rows back and forward till they are long enough.
I then reversed direction, worked dcs (US scs) all along the edge and then slip stitched the back together. (No sewing Yay!) If your feet were wider you might want to start with more trebles.
I have never been able to wear slip on shoes and even with these made fairly tight, I found they slipped off at the heel so I added some elastic. This was the hardest bit as I had to sew it on!
At this point they looked like this:-
Now they were meant to be functional but they were so boring! that I decided to brighten them up with a flower.
I found a pattern for a crochet ‘Rosette’ in this book that I had used earlier for the knitted roses
and just made the first two layers.
and sewed them on the toes.
And here they are worn over a pair of my hand-knitted socks.
Since I made my list of projects for this year I have added two new ones! 🙂
Both are for things I have been requested to make.
The first that I started is here.
This is for someone who saw me wearing the (well people seem to call it a cowl) – seen on the left in the picture below – that I made a few years ago (Post HERE)
The new and the old
and asked if I could make her one. She said that she liked ‘colourful!’ so I chose some similar yarn to that I used before but in a different colourway.
You may notice that the first part turned out rather differently to the later part. I can only imagine this is a change in the way the yarn was coloured as it is simply a tube. Luckily that part will be under the coat or jacket or I could roll that part up instead of the end. (I have to make 30ins altogether).
In order that it doesn’t delay me too much on my other projects, I am trying to knit it on the bus and other in-between times.
Interestingly, I remember when I made my Buff® – HERE that after the first few inches I found it a bit boring to go on round after round for, in that case, just a total of 18ins. I am not finding that this time and I think that that is largely because I am enjoying the colours so much. (The Buff® was made in shades of brown and white.)
The second item I have made for someone else, is because I remembered that my dishcloth had been approved of as being good for cleaning surfaces over Christmas and the person concerned had said they would like one.
As it does not take long to make a dishcloth I made them one but this time I used a different pattern in the hopes that this dishcloth would be as good at cleaning but would be easier to wring out and quicker to dry than the previous one.
It is simply a row of chains then trebles (US – dcs) into each stitch and on subsequent rows trebles worked into the spaces between the stitches on the previous row. I used a fairly large hook to make it looser.
I noticed that when I did a Google search that there are an amazing number of different and some very pretty dishcloths out there but very few are loose and holey.
And repair!
Well I should have taken a picture of the hole, but much to my regret I found that one of my beaded slippers had developed a hole underneath the toe part. Luckily I had some of the yarn left and I realised that if I undid back to just before the hole, I could re-knit from there to the toe.
Here is a picture showing where the hole was.
You can see that most of the non-slip spots I had put on the underside have either come off or been removed by me because they were too bumpy. Next time I know, if I use that method, that I need to open the bottle and use it just once. Which has made me look for other solutions.
Since I didn’t want to end up taking the whole thing apart, I found myself using the circular needles ‘magic loop’ method but knitting back and forth, to knit something that had originally been knitted on straight needles.
I was able to rescue some of the original yarn. Here you can see the scraps and the ball of useable yarn I had after undoing to below the hole.
I am trying out a cheap idea for reinforcing the sole of the slippers. I had some thick dishcloth cotton that I thought was too thick for dishcloths, so I crochetted a simple sole and here it is tacked to the bottom of the other slipper. I am still thinking about the best way to sew it on.
In April, I continued making squares for the CAL but got a bit behind because of pain in my hand.
I made bookmarks for the people who had commented most on my blog as part of my one year anniversay giveaway and bought lots of lovely coloured crochet cotton for this and future projects.
I also had a go at beaded knitting and made a pair of pretty slippers.
I went back to Portsmouth Dockyard with some of the family and saw HMS Warrior, an exhibition of costumes from the film ‘Les Miserables’ and also went out to Southsea for a ‘Dalek Invasion’.
Then at the end of the month I finished knitting my Buff®. and received a lovely surprise in the post from Patricia at DaniellaJoe’s
Adding the beads was easy-peasy and I am looking for more projects which use beads.
Adding the Sock-Stop to the soles however was much more tricky.
Being a cautious sort of person I decided to do a trial run.
Do you remember this?
My trial run at sock making.
Well I kept it as a sample and decided it would be just what I needed to see how easy (or difficult – knowing me) the Sock-Stop would be to apply.
I found an old shop-bought slipper sock for a comparison and had a go. Two or three coats was what they said. So I did two.
The finish wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked but I thought it wasn’t bad for clumsy, messy me.
Although this trial run seemed very sensible it was a mistake.
Because when I came to apply the stuff to my new slippers I found that the liquid had become a bit granular and was much harder to get out of the tube.
I struggled on and produced this.
It wasn’t as neat as I would have liked but I moved on to the second one.
You may notice they are not identical patterns. By now I was just glad to get the dots on at all.
The following day I returned to the fray and added a second coat.
I thought of flattening them with a knife but decided that didn’t work too well as the dots were of such mixed consistency.
However the next day They were ready to wear and here they are on my feet.
I am hoping that the dots don’t come off because they are rather bobbly.
If they do I was wondering about using silicone sealer. I am a bit fingers and thumbs using that as well but at least it doesn’t seem to dry in the tube once it’s been opened.
And just to finish off.
Do you remember this?
I told you that it was my aim to knit this tube long enough to make a Buff®.
Well I have to confess that I have done very little since then but having finished the slippers and wanting to give my sore joint a little longer before I went back to crochet, I decided to pick it up again and now I have got this far.
After the slippers which were such fun to make, I have found it a little boring going on and on with just the two alternating stitches but I am determined to finish it and it is relaxing. I don’t know if there is enough yarn left to make it a full eighteen inches but when the yarn runs out I will see how it goes.
