I think felting projects require a peculiar combination of faith, imagination and courage, as what you are knitting bears pretty much zero resemblance to the finished article until the magic trip around the washing machine.
Happily, my faith was eventually rewarded with these supercute felted bunny slippers that I made from a PDF pattern from Tiny Owl Knits' Etsy Shop.
The pattern suggested using Sirdar Eco Wool DK. Eco Wool is actually discontinued but I picked up four balls from Ebay and for half price too. I was a bit dubious about the shade ("shale") when it arrived in the post but again the magic of felting seems to have made it into a nice grey.
I knitted the slippers on 8mm needles with the yarn held double. Each slipper is made in one piece, with a garter stitch sole and toe and stocking stitch sides. To form the slipper, I simply had to whip stitch the heel and toe into place. The pattern kindly emphasized that all the stitches would be hidden so there was no need to do it neatly (just as well).
The bunny ears are knitted separately in stocking stitch with some simple shaping. So, at the end of my knitting, this is what I had:
I have to bless the designer, Stephanie Dosen, for including a picture of the pre-felted knitting in her pattern so I didn't throw the whole lot in the skip right there and then.
Stephanie recommended hand felting the slippers, but I've felted successfully in my washing machine many times, including with Eco Wool, so I popped the slippers on a 60 degree rapid wash with a little detergent.
Once the slippers were out, I put them on (a trifle soggy but necessary) to shape them to my feet. Once dry, I followed the making up instructions and sewed the bunny ears to the slippers. I used some leftover pink DK to make the noses and black to embroider the eyes. Finally. I used my smallest Clover pom pom maker and some white DK to produce two small pom poms, which I sewed to the heels.
At that point, I erm, decided the slippers were too big (I blame hubby for trying them on). So (and this is the courageous part), I gave them another cycle in the washing machine in their finished form.
After holding my breath for an hour, I got the slippers back out of the washer and put them back on my feet - much snugger this time. I reshaped the ears and also found the face had felted rather nicely. Unfortunately, the pom poms were in a bit of a state, so I lopped them off and made two more, thanking my lucky stars that I had mostly got away with it.
And there you have it - a triumph of hope over what the hell was I thinking...
Melx
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