When Insprition Goes Wrong: Homely Slippers

When I was in the last month of pregnancy, I found some chunky blue yarn on sale, and decided to knit my own slippers for the hospital. They would be fast in such think yarn, and I had the stitch pattern all picked out – a pseudo herringbone that would be thick and sturdy so I wouldn’t have to felt them.

I did finish them in time, and they were very useful, especially when the heat was turned off at night (in Rome, there are laws regulating how many hours a day the heat can be on, even in hospitals in January).

There was just one problem. It’s only slightly apparent from the picture above.

They are slippers that only a mother could love.

On the second one I tried to fix the decreases to look better in the patten, but it didn’t change the fact that the basic shape that came out belongs to some kind bizarre, triangle footed hoofed animal, or something out of a cartoon.

It is an example of how inspiration–yarn + stitch + desired object – does not always turn out well. In this case, the yarn and stitch pattern are great together, but the stitch pattern is not used well for the desired object. By going around the foot the way I did, I had to decrease a lot, and this stitch pattern does not decrease well.

I also had no idea what rate of decrease I needed to create a human shaped foot.

I still love these slippers – they are sentimental, of course, and warm, practical, not slippery, everything I need my slippers to be. But I won’t be publishing this pattern.

Unless I hear of large group of knitters making slippers for belgian draft horses.

Image by fishhawk on flickr. Modified and used under Creative Commons license.

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