Clogs and more

It feels like I've been working on these slippers forever, but really just since last Christmas. My feet were so cold and sometimes the ribbing on socks really irritates my ankles so I decided to make a pair of slippers. I searched the internet and craft store for patterns and even made a few that turned out pretty nice.

I wanted a smoother feel so I looked for a felted pattern. Found some really nice knitted patterns for clogs and booties but I couldn't knit. Out of frustration I decide to come up with my own pattern. I experimented with a few clogs but they were sadly misshapen, so as the weather warmed they were relegated to a pile in the closet.

In September I thought about the clogs again and decided to tackle the problem from a different angle. I used a pair of well worn leather clogs as a model and worked on mapping the proportions and translating it to crochet. Then I approached it as a piece of sculture. I took a few years of sculpture classes and here's what we did, we put the model in the center and then work the 2D view, then turn 45 degrees and work that view, and so on and so on until you go all around and it looks as you wish.

So I did this and the pile of rejects grew and I was really committed now and one day I fished it out of the washer and it looked good! I made another one and it was still good! Then it was easy to make different varieties. The boots took quite a bit more but they were really worth it. I could make endless more varieties with fancy trims and hardware. I am very pleased with this pattern, I feel like it is my best so far.

Pattern available here.

tags: crochet felted slippers boots

Black & White Cookie Purse

I wanted to make a purse with black and white paillettes, I was thinking a small rectangle shaped bag that I could use for parties, so I gathered all the materials together and when I started to crochet all I could think about was those yummy black and white cookies that I can't eat anymore since I'm eliminating sugar from my diet. So the purse turned out round instead, very stylish though. Kinda yin-yangish too. Download the pattern here. Instructions to crochet with paillettes here also.

tags: crochet purse paillettes

Felted Wine Glass Coasters

I have a whole bunch of wool scraps and wanted to make something useful out of them. I found a few nice coaster patterns, but it just didn't seem right to have open holey crochet in a coaster. Since I've been in a felting frenzy, I decided to felt them. They turned out pretty nice, super fast and easy, and functional too. Great gift with a bottle of wine. Pattern here.

tags: crochet felted coasters