Slipper Magic

This weekend I went on a Girls' Weekend to a friend's cabin in Wisconsin. There were 14 of us there. Most of the women had become friends in college (at UMD, go Bulldogs!) and the rest of us had been adopted by one or more members of the group over the past 20 or so years. This is an annual event, but I have only gone once before (despite numerous invitations) but hope that this year will not be my last.

My friend SME (think "Who's there? Its-SME!") was there, too - her first time on the weekend, even though she is one of the core UMD-ers - and she, as you may be aware, is the Knitting Goddess. On her blog she had posted photos of felted slippers she was making, and I implored her to teach me how.

So over the weekend, she did just that! In the two days away I made the first half of my pair of slippers (without kids, dogs, phone, computer, laundry, or any other distractions. I figure it will take me about 63 1/2 days to make the second one.) Here is a picture of me wearing slipper #1. Note this is NOT the finished product, I am not suffering from an inability to count stitches, nor did I have a problem with needle size.

The next step is to cook this baby. I thought I had to actually boil it on the stove, but SME assures me I can simply wash it in the machine in hot water, and it will shrink right down to the size I want. If it's too big after one washing, I wash it again. I just realized as I type these words I don't know what to do if it shrinks too much. Merry Christmas, Mom, I guess.

SME advises me to get the second one knit before shrinking so I can do them together. So you may not see the final final product for a while. But this was quite fun to do, and I can't wait to finish! Maybe the boys have a school vacation this week that I forgot about???