Felted Sailor Style Slippers Review – A Cozy Free Knitting Pattern Worth Trying

If you love practical knitting projects, this free Felted Sailor Style Slippers pattern is a fun one to try. It has that classic striped look, and the real magic happens after felting, when the oversized knitted slippers shrink down into cozy, sturdy house slippers.

What I like about this pattern is that it is useful without being boring. The stripes give it that sweet sailor-style charm, and it is the kind of project that feels very giftable. You could go classic with navy and cream, or have fun with brighter colour combos from your stash.

The pattern itself is fairly straightforward if you already know the basics. You knit the slippers in the round, do a bit of shaping, then finish them off and felt them in the washing machine. It is not the hardest project in the world, but I would not call it a first-ever knitting project either.

One of the nicest things about this pattern is that it includes felting guidance too, which is handy because felting can feel a bit like crossing your fingers and hoping for the best the first time around.

Overall, this is a lovely free pattern for anyone wanting to make warm, handmade slippers with a neat striped finish. Cozy, practical, and just a little bit clever — always a good combo.

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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