Staying up, burning the midnight oil paid off (even if it meant less than usual sleep for me and a couple cases of the crankies due to that lack of sleep). I finished up K's knitting projects in time for her first day back to school. This is her second and final year of kindergarten (Waldorf kindergartens are mixed-age ranging from 3 1/2 - 6 years of age. A child typically spends 2 - 3 years in kindergarten.). So bittersweet. I wanted to make sure everything was just right for this special year.
It's always raining her in the beautiful pacific northwest, so rain boots are a daily affair. In fact, the children are required to keep rain gear (rain coat, rain pants and boots) in their school locker all year for their outside time (In our school the children go outside every day, without exception, no matter what the weather is). I can remember wearing rain boots as a child, they kept my feet dry but they weren't very insulated so my feet were cold. I was hoping to find a way to fix that for my girls and happened upon this pattern on ravelry. How perfect!
As you can see from last week's post, I changed my mind about which yarn to use for this project. While the yarn I originally picked was a beautiful color, it just seemed a bit too itchy to be up against K's skin on those nice rainy days when she wears a dress and shoes without socks. So I went for this soft wool/silk blend yarn instead. I only modified one part of the pattern because I try to find any way I can to avoid sewing/seaming knitting. Full rav notes here.
The liners were a fast knit and look so cute and cozy in her boots. She tells me that they make her boots 'even more comfy'. Sounds good to me! A have another set already on my needles for C's matching rain boots, so it will be cozy. comfy, cuteness all around!
The other school project was a new pair of inside shoes/slippers for class using this pattern. Rav notes can be found here.
It's such an easy pattern to knit up but sewing it up afterwards is quite the mind boggler, at least when you are using the same colored yarn for the whole slipper and running on little sleep, it is. You may be thinking these slippers look familiar, there is a reason for that! K doesn't usually see me on the computer but then one night as I was searching for a slipper pattern for her on ravelry, she came downstairs scared by a dream. She saw these slippers on the computer screen and was instantly happy again, telling me that she really wanted those exact slippers. Who am I to deny her something that made her so happy, especially when it is something I can easily make for her. And so I knit them for her.
Here is what they looked like before I felted them:
Here's a photograph of the pre-felted slipper with one of her shoes to give you an idea as to how big it was:
Here they are, fully felted, after about 4 cycles in the washer.
They are the perfect fit with just enough room to grow to last her the school year.
After I blocked them and let them dry, I traced K's feet on a piece of paper. Then I cut out those tracings and added a 1/2" to the top and bottom of the foot. I used these tracings as a pattern for the slipper bottoms. I traced them on to a thrift store find leather jacket (on sale for $1), cut them out and then sewed them to the bottom of the slippers. These will help give K more traction on her classroom's beautiful hardwood floors as well as help slow down wear and tear to the slippers. My sewing wasn't perfect (and apparently my cutting wasn't, as well - you can see the pen marks from wear I traced the patterns), but hey it's the bottom of her slippers, I think it'll be ok.
Now as I knit C's rain boot liners during the day, I am working on sewing another waldorf doll at night. It's been a couple of years since I have worked on one, so I am out of practice. Hopefully it will all come back to me, though.
What are you working on? Happy creating!
