I finished a slipper today! I have just logged into the blog to talk about it and noticed that none of my scheduled posts have worked. Argh! I’ve been so busy the last few days that I just haven’t logged into the website to check and it has failed.

Rather than post it all today, I’m going to publish this post now as I planned, and you get the bonus posts tomorrow and Friday. Of course this means my promised post on the Ouessant Sheep also failed, so that promise was broken. I am so sorry!

Anyway, here’s the success for the day!

A Slipper Bounty

I’ve been so busy making cards for the last ten days that I haven’t actually done any knitting. (You can buy the cards here – I’m particularly proud of the Harry Potter cards and the wedding cards I have just listed). This morning I decided that I was just going to sit down and knit! I gave myself until 9 am; at 9:06 am I was just casting off, and I was so happy to have finished!

The pattern is Cadeautje by Ysolda Teague and it utilises thrums. I adore thrums! I adore the pattern! However, as the slipper I completed today is the fourth one I’ve knitted, I’m a little over it. I also discovered the interesting problem with getting complacent about being an ‘experienced’ knitter of this pattern. (Ha!)

OK, you need to know what that means – the first one I knitted was perfect because I was watching the pattern super carefully and making sure I followed the instructions to the letter. The second one was….not OK. I accidentally did too many rows on the toe cap and didn’t notice until I had cast off. I put that down to experience and thought the next one would be better.

Slipper three was not much better. I kept getting the stitch count wrong – I was looking for 37 stitches at one point and just could not get it right – a decrease was supposed to then happen to get to 36 stitches, and I had 35 every time I tried. So, I increased instead, chalked it up to experience. The next one would be perfect.

I tinked back and reknitted for an hour. I kept getting 35 stitches and I have simply no idea where those missing two stitches went! I know the pattern is correct because the first one was perfect – I even logged into Ravelry and downloaded the PDF again. I compared and contrasted and saw no difference. Eventually, I cut my losses and did the same increase, zipped up the cuff and cast off. Hurrah!

I love the outcome, the slippers are super comfortable and will go well with two of my family members when Christmas is around the corner! I believe. We may have decided not to exchange gifts this year – so these could just go in the gift box for birthdays, or I’ll find a way to cheat and give it to them anyway.

So, that’s the story of Cadeautje. I was going to knit a pair for everyone in the family – but with the latest thoughts of not sharing gifts and simply enjoying each other’s company, I’m turning my efforts to other endeavours! I’m off to enjoy the company of the kitten – who we have named Tonks Phoebe!

Much love,

Corrie xx