The Eleven Twelve Sweater is a Lesson in Customizing Knits

I love it when designers have a lot of different test knitters for projects and give them free reign to play with their designs. You end up with a wealth of variations that can be really inspiring to the rest of us knitters.

A great example of that is the Eleven Twelve sweater from Tina Tse. It’s a pretty straightforward top-down, circular yoke sweater that uses a textured slip stitch stripe pattern.

If you look through the photos on the Ravelry project page you’ll see so many different options for what’s sure to become a favorite sweater. There are some who chose a rather neutral color scheme, while others went bold. There are long sleeved and mid-length sleeve variations.

One even used scraps of yarn to make stripes of many colors instead of using a single contrasting color, which is a great tip for people looking to pare down their stashes — more color is always OK!

The design is worked in sock yarn and comes in 10 sizes. You can use her pay what you can model if the suggested price of $12 isn’t feasible for you.

[Photo: Tina Tse.]

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The felted slipper craze that began last year doesn’t seem like it’s fading away. The Sailor Slippers, often striped knit and felted slippers made with super bulky yarn, because the project of the moment late last year (check out more knit slipper options in this post all about sailor slippers) and they’re still consistently popular with knitters.

Which makes sense because they are fun and fast to knit, and seeing them go from this giant thing to something that actually fits a foot feels a little magical.

I have always loved felting (in fact my first book was about felting knitting) and it’s always fun for me to see people rediscover this technique.

If you’ve knit enough plain slippers to fit all the feet you know, maybe it’s time to stitch up some tabi style slippers instead.

Maymade Knits has designed these cute tabi ballerina slippers, made with bulky yarn and felted. They’re worked flat at first and then in rounds, and are available in 10 EU sizes (the Internet tells me add 31 to your American shoe size to get your EU size). The designer says the slippers are meant to have a close fit and you should choose a size a little smaller than your foot for the ideal fit.

The pattern includes a video tutorial along with the written pattern.

You can grab this pattern on Ravelry. The same designer has her own version of the striped felted slipper as well, called Sarah’s Striped Slippers. These are worked in super bulky yarn and have a contrasting foot and a striped body. These are knit flat and seamed and there are 7 size options available. Check that pattern out here if you’re looking for a more traditional slipper shape. They also look roomier so you can wear them with socks if you like.

[Photo: Maymade Knits]

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