Easy Knit Gift Idea: Felted Sailor Slippers!

It feels like it’s about that time of year as I write this, where you’ve either abandoned all hope of knitting all the holiday gifts you had planned to knit, or you just decided, like, yesterday that you wanted to knit some gifts.

If you’re in the second group, or you just want to make something quick and easy to gift that person you don’t know what to give to (or even to have a gift you can pull out if some random person comes to your house with a gift unexpectedly) here’s an idea for you: felted slippers.

The felted Sailor Slippers by Annie Germain are quick and easy to knit in super bulky yarn on size 11 US/8 mm knitting needles.

You start at the heel and work flat throughout, with a few episodes of picking up stitches, casting on and working mattress stitch to sew parts together. The opening is finished with applied I-cord and then the slippers are felted.

The pattern includes a variety of sizes ranging from UK 3 to 12 or EU 36 to 47 (that’s about a women’s 5.5 to men’s 16.5 in American sizing, or women’s 5.5. to men’s 13 in Australia). So how do you pick if you’re knitting a gift? I’d hit somewhere in the middle if you don’t know the person’s shoe size or if you’re not knitting for a particular person.

Hopefully you know them well enough if you’re knitting for them to know if their feet are exceptionally large or small and you can adjust accordingly. Of course if you’re making them for yourself or a family member you can knit to their actual shoe size.

These slippers are meant to be striped, and the designer has a coloring page on her website so you can plan out your colors if you like.

The pattern is rated for advanced beginners because of a few techniques, but there’s nothing too difficult here.

[Photo: Annie Germain]

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The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

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