Half Scrappy, Quite Happy October

I am again joining in Scrap Happy curated by Kate on the 15th of each month – a celebration of things made from scraps of all kinds. Do visit the other posts – the links are at the end of this post.

You may remember that a short while ago I visited a neighbour who then discovered that she had to self-isolate after spending time with her Dad who had gone on to test positive for Covid-19. I chose to stay away from people too just in case I had picked it up from her. In the event neither of us became ill but as new doors were being fitted downstairs I spent 2 days in the bedroom keeping away from the workmen.

Amongst other things I made a pair of slippers using scraps and a pair of espadrille soles.

I found that the backs were not stiff enough and flopped down so they were always under my feet and uncomfortable. But I had thrown out my old slippers so I had to make a new pair before I could alter these!

I found a book of patterns for knitted and crocheted slippers but they were effectively just sloppy socks of various lengths and I need ones with soles as my hard floors are quite cold to walk on. I decided to make a pair and stitch them to a spare pair of espadrille soles! If they were unwearable I could always undo the stitching and use the soles for something else and wear the slippers as thick socks!

I chose a pattern which was obviously translated (not entirely accurately) from one of the Nordic languages and used a yarn I could not track down to find what weight it was. Google gave me images but suggested it was a brand rather than a specific weight yarn. I eventually worked out that using aran doubled could give me the correct tension.

A while back I knitted myself a jumper using a pattern in an old book of traditional designs. This one is a Whitby Guernsey made with Aran weight yarn. There is no shaping at all. For those of you not from the UK Whitby is a fishing port on the North East Coast and in the old days fishermen on the trawlers wore these heavy jumpers. Often the design worked on them indicated the port and / or family so that if they drowned and were washed up later they could be identified – slightly ghoulish but very pragmatic.

The guernsey used just over 1 ball of yarn so I had almost a full ball left. That had to be enough for the slippers and was the only colour in my stash that looked like being sufficient. I am not sure how long the slippers will last – it isn’t sock wool and may go into holes – but the slippers work! The soles are rather heavy for the tops which stretch making me scuff as I walk but for sitting in the evenings they are very cosy.

Once they were made I undid the stitching on the blue ones, removed the backs and turned them into mules which I wear around the house in the daytime – they are easy to slip on and off when I change to and from wellies or boots to go outside.

So two pairs of slippers with scrap tops and new soles!

Just follow the links to find lots of lovely ideas from these other very talented scrapsters

Kate, Gun, Titty, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sunny and Kjerstin