Grown-Up Sweetie Slippers: Free Crochet Pattern

The Toddler Sweetie Slipper was such a hit in our house, it’s been necessary to adjust the pattern to an adult size! I love mine because they don’t slide around or slouch at the ankle, and they’re just thick and cozy!  When we were in Alaska, my sweet husband got me my silver fox and beaver pelt slippers that are SUPER warm and soft!  I wore the often up there, though they are a tad big.  But I just found out that I can wear these crocheted slippers inside them if, you know, it’s -20 and the power goes out.  My feet would still be warm.  These whip up really fast and are gender-neutral, so they make great gifts, too!   There may or may not be a few of my family members receiving these for Christmas =)

You may not choose to do it exactly like this and that’s GREAT!  This is just a good starting point, but feel free to adjust, tweak, and embellish to your heart’s content!  You may notice in some of my photos that one of the yarn colors will change seemingly sporadically.  Some of these are intentional (adding the fluffy navy around the cuff of the blue pair) and some are for the simple reason that I was using this project to whittle down my ever increasing yarn stash and it WORKED!  Using two yarn s at a time makes these slippers thick and warm, but it’s also a great stash buster for all those odd leftover pieces.  If you don’t mind a new color halfway down your foot.  Maybe you’ll chose to switch colors there intentionally!

Note: To get the texture I wanted, I only crocheted into the back loop of each space.  You could do a regular stitch, but may have to adjust the sizing a little.  This pattern fits a women's size 7-10

With two yarns of choice for foot:

Magic Ring of 6 sc.  Join with sl st and tighten ends.  Ch2

Round 2: 2dc in each st around.  Join with sl st.  Ch2

Round 3:  (dc in next sp, 2dc in next sp) around.  Join with sl st.  Ch2

This is about five stitches into round 4

Round 4: (dc in next 2 sp, 2 dc in next sp) around.  Join with sl st.  Ch2

Round 4 complete

Round 5: (dc in next 3 sp, 2 dc in next sp) aroud.  Join with sl st.  Ch2

Rounds 6-8: Dc in each sp around.  Join with sl st. Ch 2

Rounds 9: (dc in next 7, dc2tog) around.  Join with sl st.  ch 2

Rounds 10-11: Dc in each sp around.  Join with sl st. Ch 2 

*Note:  This is one place you can add a couple more rounds for individuals with particularly long feet.

Row 1:  Ch2 2, Dc in each of next 10 sp.  2Dc in next sp.  Dc in next 10 sp (should be about ¾ of the way around).  Turn.

Row 1 complete

Rows 2-7:  Ch2 2, Dc in each of next 10 sp.  2Dc in next sp.  Dc in each sp to end.  Turn.

Row 7 complete

*Note: This is another place you can add more rows for a larger size.

Turn the heel inside out and slip stitch seam down the back.  Turn right side out.

Still open  along the back before seam.  Excuse my little helper's arm =)



Still inside out after having finished the seam

With two yarns of choice for ankle:

Round 1: Join with sl st to top of heel in the back.  Ch 2.  Dc in each sp across to corner where the side meets the top of foot.  Dc2 tog.  Dc in each sp across top of foot.  DC 2 tog at opposite corner.  DC in each sp around ankle and sl st to join with start.  Ch2.

Round 2-3: (Dc in each of the next 5 sp.  2 Dc in next sp) around.  Join with sl st.  Ch2

Round 4: Dc in each sp around.  Join with sl st and finish off.

 

*Note: Rounds 3-4 are optional depending on how high you want your ankle.  If you want it higher, keep repeating round 4 until you’ve reached your desired height.

Done!  Well, you might want to start from the beginning again so you end up with a pair. =)  But you get the idea.  Now your toes will be ready for the cold (or holiday) season!  If you have any questions or notice any problems with the pattern, please shoot me a message.  Thanks!  Happy creating!

Sweetie Slippers-Quickest, Comfiest Crochet Toddler Slippers

What!?  Slippers! It’s still summer for Pete’s sake!

I know, but hear me out:  We’ve been unpacking and our little laddie unearthed his adorable red slippers created by the talented Rachel Zachary.  They’re his favorite so he put them right on his feet and went to prance around the house.  Well, this was terribly unfair in the eyes of his sister!  So I took her to my yarn stash and she picked out two colors of yarn.  Oh!  She was so excited she just squealed and ran around the house with a skein of yarn under each arm!  During her nap the next day, I whipped up one slipper after looking at her brothers pair a bit and perusing some patterns online (see these cuties!)  When she woke up, she was so thrilled that she wore just the one slipper the rest of the evening!  The match was finished the following nap and right now it’s pushing 100 degrees outside and my daughter has her slippers on! Silly girl, but it’s nice when your work is so appreciated!  I made them a little big so they’ll (hopefully) fit through the winter.

Actually, I think I'm still on my Alaskan internal clock to some extent.  Even though it's crazy hot here, I'm seeing photos of my Fairbanks friends all bundled up in coats and hats already.  This is the time of year we're used to preparing for a long, deep, and cold winter.

Anyway, I was just telling my mom about this project and how, at this stage in our lives, I rarely complete a project that isn't super quick, can be dropped at any time for the random emergency, and terribly useful.  This project definitely fits those guidelines and I love that it is still lovely and fun.  In fact, as soon as I finished hers, I picked out some greens to make myself a pair!  Awesome way to use up some yarn remnants, too!

I used two yarns at once (first time I’ve tried this technique) and I really love how they join together and how thick and warm of a texture they create.   I haven’t written many patterns before so if there’s any confusion, please shoot me a message!  This pattern is for a size 6, but they could easily be adjusted for larger feet, I would imagine.  To make a larger size, I would repeat round 3 1-2x, then repeat row 12 until it is long enough.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Sweetie Slippers                                                                               

Round one: 6 DC into magic ring.  Tighten and join to first.

 

Round 2: Ch 2.  2 DC in each sp. (12)  Join with slst.

Round 3: Ch 2. (2 DC in next sp.  1 DC in next sp) around. (19)  Join with sl st.

Round 4-6: Ch 2.  1 DC in each sp around.  (19)  Join with sl to.

Row 7-12: Chain 2, turn.  DC 13 across.

With right sides facing, join the back of the heel with slip stiches.  Fasten off.

Join to top of the heel seam with a sl st.  Chain 2

Round 1: (DC in each sp) 9x. DC 2tog.  DC in next 5 sp.  DC 2tog.  (DC in each sp) 9x.  Join with sl st.

Round 2-3: Ch 2.  DC in each sp around. (24)  Join with sl st.

Fasten off.  Weave ends.

~Hindsight note: now that she's worn these a few days, I'm seeing that they're rather large around her tiny ankles.  They stay on fine, but if I were to make them again, I would do a few more DC 2togs in the second to last round.

If you decide to give this pattern a try, I would love to see how it turns out for you and how you might choose to make them uniquely yours!  Would you send me a photo?  Happy creating!

Oh yeah!  Break up is coming!  The last few days have got above freezing and it looks like we might be nearing the end!  Fynn has been positively fascinated by the drips of liquid water falling off the tips of the icicles this last week.  When I drove into town today, there was water on the roads and the banks of snow were beginning to wither!  I love it!  No more coat for me!  I was even able to force a couple willow boughs to put on the table.

Our venture into town included a stop by the library.  Why don't I do this more often?

The glorious sun shone enough yesterday to bring the temperature up into the 50s!  I took Fynn out to feed the chickens without his snowsuit and it was so nice we decided to stay out a bit.  I plopped him down on the porch where all the snow had melted.   At first he wasn't so sure, then he got really excited, discovered a pile of hay and then some pine cones.  What joy!   A walk followed, and both Fynn and Clancey were just ecstatic!  This time of year is so much fun!

The winters here are undeniably long and many get cabin fever, especially stay at home moms.  Although I found myself plenty busy and am a bit of a home body anyway, I made it my goal to learn something new this winter.  So now, I can proudly say I have acquired a very modest ability to crochet!  All thanks to the patient guidance of my dear friend Willow.  It is so addictive, I just want to crochet all the time, but as it is warming up, I think I'll soon have to put away my needle and yarn and break out my gardening tools.  Speaking of witch, I also started planting my indoor seeds this week!  Have I mentioned I love this time of year.

Peculiar Poultry Predicament

What an unusual winter!  We just got out of a 2 month stretch of really cold (I'm guessing we averaged 25 below for that length) and now it's above freezing!  Most lower 48-ers might think that's a good thing, but here it's dreaded in the winter.  Thawing snow and ice means that the roads get slicker than snot and all the melting turns into a big mess, then when it freezes again, you have all the bad ice to worry about.  I consider myself blessed to be able to stay at home today, but I find myself with my own set of challenges accompanying this heat wave.   The ice and snow have apparently cracked the caulking around our chimney, so we're getting some leaking with the melting roof snow there.

And then there's my chickens.  Oh, I am learning so much with these girls this year!  I had been attempting the deep litter method with them (see this article), but with this thaw came an awful stench in there coop!  So I started digging it all out (I couldn't before as the lower layers were completely frozen) and unearthed at least a half dozen eggs.  Apparently, during our really cold months, they had buried some of their eggs (normal chicken behavior?)  The eggs then froze, cracking the shell.  And now these eggs were rotten and thawing--yuk!  I got it all cleaned up now, but what an ordeal.  I think I'm going to have to adjust my game plan for next year.

Proverbs 12: 10a " A righteous man cares for the needs of his animals"  I love that God chose to include this in His Word!  He did give us dominion over His creatures and I think that's a great commission.  Obviously I don't believe this means we shouldn't hunt or butcher, but that we should not be cruel to the critters we come across or choose to care for.

Pocket Hand Warmers

We got an exciting update at church this morning: we're moving ahead with buying a new building!  This is so great, we're sort of bursting at the seams and desperately in need of more space, so this will be great!  (For more info, see the link for our church at the right).  Something that I've had on my heart for awhile was addressed in the sermon today, and that is to get out into our community rather than just have all my human contact be with other believers.  So I'm using this page as a place of accountability today:  I'm going to at least call a couple outreaches this week and see if they have any needs I might be able to help with.  Okay, now I have to do it! =)  And hopefully something I can bring this little cutie along with me.

Here's another simple Christmas gift idea, or maybe stocking stuffers.  And the fun thing is you can really do any shape you want.  Just cut four pieces from felt, embroider a design on two if desired.  Then blanket stitch most of the way around the edges, fill with either rice or rice and lavender, then finish off!  Place in the microwave for a minute or two, then tuck in your pockets (or your sweeties pockets), and then your ready for the frosty day outside!  (PS: you can find mine for sale at my etsy shop "Way up North": link also at right.)