Bunny slippers!!!!
Because who doesn't need a pair of bunny slippers? The fact that these are hand knitted just makes them ten times better!
True confessions: this is my second attempt at this pattern. The first time I did it I used a mostly wool yarn... bad move. I didn't realise until it was too late that it has to be something like a 100% wool, hand wash only kinda thing, to be able to felt. Something about the fibres being able to grip to each other...? It's probably best to use a felting yarn.
Anyway, having gone back, researched the problem, and started up with a different yarn, I ended up with these!
True confessions: this is my second attempt at this pattern. The first time I did it I used a mostly wool yarn... bad move. I didn't realise until it was too late that it has to be something like a 100% wool, hand wash only kinda thing, to be able to felt. Something about the fibres being able to grip to each other...? It's probably best to use a felting yarn.
Anyway, having gone back, researched the problem, and started up with a different yarn, I ended up with these!
The worst part about this pattern (to me) is the felting. They are dead easy to knit up! The instructions are well written and with a bit of help from youtube all the stitches are super easy (I've always had a bit of trouble with slip slip knit but the cardigan I'm nearly done with cleared that up). The felting however.....
I guess I'm a little biased because it stuffed me up so much last time. I was sitting there for about an hour just scrubbing and scrubbing to no avail. This time I actually used a different method than the one listed in the pattern. In the original pattern, I found the instructions for felting really vague. I had never felted before and these instructions weren't giving me much confidence.
I used a method where you leave them in hot water for 5 mins then come back with rubber gloves on and some soap (I used dish washing liquid) and rub the knitting against itself for 5 mins. You have to dunk the knitting back into the hot water every so often to ensure the knitting stays hot. Then rinse it out with cold water to help the fibres lock and take a look at how well they felted. Then you repeat! I did this 3 times but you can stop when you're satisfied.
I liked that this method had it laid out in little chunks. It made it easier to sit there and scrub wet wool back and forth. Also, the dunking the knitting made more sense since felting is caused by heat and agitation of the wool fibres.
I had a few issues with fit but since I'm not very patient with felting, I decided to give the bunnies little tails to fit them to my feet a bit better and omitted the fluffy tails in the pattern.
The nose is the 4 Seasons Pure Wool in 8ply stitched 4 time around to get a cute but sturdy nose. I ended up using embroidery floss for the eyes since I didn't have black wool. All in all I am very chuffed! My feet should stay cuddly warm all winter!
Pattern: Hopsalots by Tiny Owl Knits
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