Last week after Craftzine so kindly put my Candy Sushi post up on their site, I found this nifty tutorial for Norwegian house slippers over there as well.

I loved them, and the crafty side of me, that I try so very hard to suppress, just came bubbling to the surface. I was going to make these slippers!

There were a few problems though …

I didn’t have the right weight of yarn –> Ah, to heck with that, I’ll just make do with what I do have, as long as it’s wool and will felt … who cares right? I wanted to make these for Georgia and the size chart was for adult sizing –> ah, who cares, I’ll figure it out. I’ll make them big and keep felting them until they work. I don’t knit –> screw the knitting, I’ll crochet them (I made a 1/2 a dish cloth once, how different/difficult can it be?).

So once again, I was making a craft and following none of the instructions!

My materials:

3 colours of wool yarn (suitable for felting) (4 weight, I think)

1 crochet needle (mine is a size 5 from Lizzy’s Klutz kit)

I did the whole pattern in single crochet. If you need a refresher –> Let the Knit Witch show you how! I did!

Sizing: according to the instructions you need 16 stitches across to make a size 5, but her yarn looked pretty thin compared to mine and the stitches more loose. I decided to go with 15 chain stitches (leaving me 14 stitches across). If they were too big, I decided I could force Sam to wear them. They’re a tad girly, but who cares … he wears an earring.

I was careful to make sure all my squares were the same size. I was constantly folding and comparing to make sure. Each of my squares measured approximately 8cmx8cm (3″x3″). Each coloured square was 14 stitches across and 16 rows deep, except for the white square which were 14 stitches across and 18 rows deep (the yarn was a bit thinner and I added the extra rows to balance out the size).

Pattern: When you are knitting, you are supposed to knit one long ‘L’ shape, 6 squares long and 3 squares across. I wasn’t quite sure how to do this crocheting, so I decided to crochet two pieces and stitch them together.

If Blue = 1, Green = 2, and Cream = 3, then the pattern for the slippers is:

Pattern for 5 square piece is: 1 – 2 – 1 – 3 – 2

Pattern for 3 piece square is: 1 – 3 – 1

I didn’t do anything fancy when stitching pieces together …

Just try to keep the stitches neat and tight, but don’t worry too much because the felting process will hide a LOT of flaws.

Folding –> who knew the Norwegians were in to wool origami?! I found the the written instructions (and photos) at Craftzine nearly impossible to follow. Here is a really easy to follow Video tutorial.



Video credit – Knitting with Lissi

I did take photos of every step of the folding, but don’t even look! JUST watch the video. OK?

DON’T try to figure it out … just watch the VIDEO!

When you’re done with the Norwegian Origami (with wool), they should look something like this:

About now, you’ll think to yourself this are stinkin’ HUGE, they’d fit me!

And you’d be right, they are HUGE and the did fit me. That’s where the felting comes in. NO thinking you’re glad you don’t have my ankles, the camera puts on 10lbs!

Felting is really just the washing and shrinking of your knit (crochet) item. So just pop these in a hot wash with detergent and shrink away. If they’re not felted or small enough keep washing them. I washed this pair once on regular cycle with jeans and then again on a sanitary cycle with towels.

Now they’re a perfect fit for Georgia. They’re also soft, thick and perfect for winter!

Note: prior to washing, I knotted all ends, snipped, hid and tucked loose threads!

MK xo

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