I never really understood slippers. I mean obviously the concept of them was not ungraspable, however they were just never really something I got on with until the last few years.
I had previously made these from a kit I picked up at the Knit and Stitch Ally Pally a few years back; they were a beautiful forest green and I wore them until they were full of holes and fairly filthy, slobbing out to the car in them, spilling porridge and coffee on them whilst clumsily making my breakfast in the dark in them...
When I got a hole so badly that my big toe was poking out, I realised I needed to knit myself up a new pair, however wanted to try and find the cheapest feltable (is that a word?) wool that I could, as I knew they would last about as long as my other ones, and I wear them to death. A quick google search and Ravelry hunt told me that the Cascade 220 was 100% wool and good for felting, so I picked a couple of this colour, I think it was midnight blue or something, from their Heathers collection. It's so good that brands like Cascade and the Drops Alpaca ranges are getting more readily available over here, sometimes you want relatively priced yarn that isn't acrylic, which is pretty hard to find in the UK, I feel like.
Anyway, the pattern you can buy online, or there are similar ones all over Ravelry, but you basically knit giant floppy shapes with the yarn held double, and then you stick them in the washing machine until they felt up. They're super cosy, and great for shuffling about the house in.
I've knit them for a friend, too, who seemed to enjoy them, and they knit amazingly fast - so I would say they make good gifts. They loosen up over time, but that can easily be resolved by a quick wash, and they quickly shrink back up again. Obsessed doesn't even cut it - I'm rarely without these, these days.
