Felted Clogs V

Sometime last winter, I looked at all the felted clogs around my house and thought “why don’t I have a pair of these?” This pattern by Bev Galeskas is genius and has earned its place as a classic in the knitting canon. I’ve made 4 pairs.

The first pair was for S1. In these, I held together one strand of yellow and one strand of orange yarn, which results in this marbled look. (The pattern uses 2 strands of worsted weight yarn on US 13 needles.) The yarn is Nature Spun from my stash of feltable yarns. The next pair was for Boy 1, who admired the first pair. These are made from some leftover Lamb’s Pride I had in the stash. Lamb’s Pride is 85% wool/15% mohair, and it takes MUCH longer to felt. He loved these (and Boy 2 still wears them on occasion):

When S1’s first pair wore out, I made her another. This time I bought new Lamb’s Pride. This pair came out so well. I still love them.The fourth pair was for Boy 1 again, who outgrew his first pair and wanted more. I sent him to my stash basket of worsted yarn and told him to pick anything he wanted. He picked this garish combination (but remember, he’s red-green color blind so he doesn’t see what you do!): This is a long preamble to the current story… which is that when Steven was here for MDSW last May, we happened across a cute little LYS in Waynesboro, PA, called The Knitting Cottage. They had some “seconds” skeins of Lamb’s Pride on sale for only $5 each. I took that as a sign that it was time for me to have my own pair of felted clogs, and I bought 2 skeins of green and 1 of brown. It’s a little counterintuitive, but you need MORE of the color for the sole (which is double thick) and edging than for the upper. I forgot about that when I was buying yarn… I envisioned a green clog with brown trim. But I had the yarn to make a brown clog with green trim, so that’s what I made. Here is what they looked like before felting: The slippers are on my hands and forearms – that crease you see is the inside of my elbow!

I threw them in the washing machine. I remembered that this yarn takes a looonnnnggg time to felt, so I walked away. This was a mistake. My machine entered the spin cycle and kind of flattened things out. See what I mean? The bumpers aren’t all perfectly rounded like they are on all the others I’ve made. They are all smushed in places and the slippers look kind of misshapen as a result.

I think they may look less weird after I wear them around this winter, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to report back on that.

I’m thinking of this pair like an ugly pie. It may not look great, but it will still taste good. These slippers will be warm and cozy when the temperature drops.

Also, I’m pretty sure that this won’t be the last pair that I make!