Toasty Toes

I know it has been a while, but I was suddenly motivated to start knitting some slippers. We had a cold snap and the floor gets very chilly on my bare feet.
I have several patterns for slippers and chose the quickest one. The author made these up in one day, but it took me two days. I found the pattern on one of my favorite DIY web sites -  Here.
I always am disappointed when I knit socks or slippers and within weeks the soles start to wear out. I wanted to make some that would last. I found one pattern that called for polar fleece yarn. I had no idea what that was, but finally it dawned on me that the yarn was actually made from Polar Fleece!!! I looked up the yarn and it wasn't terribly expensive, but a pair of slippers would have cost me $30 to $50. Now the whole purpose of knitting them myself is to use my own yarn or whatever so that it's CHEAP - as in FREE.

Well, duh. I had an old fleece jacket with a broken zipper that was in the give/throw away bag. I rushed to take it out and started cutting strips to make my own yarn. (I used to have a nice rotary cutter and mat but they vanished during the move. I had to use scissors and wear gloves to prevent blisters.)

I cut the strips the same way I do when I weave rag rugs. I folded it in half with the stretchy side on the fold and cut from the fold but not all the way through the open side. Then I open it up and cut every other slit on one side. I do the same on the other side but alternating with the first side. This leaves me with one long strip that I can roll into a ball. I round off the square edges as I roll.
Then I started knitting.

I did omit the pom-poms. I'm just not a pom-pom type of girl, and I added a small loop on the back of the heel so I could hand them up.

This is not the most flattering of footwear, but it is thick, soft and warm and it's machine washable. As usual, one of my slippers was considerably bigger than the other. I had to do some tucking in the heel section, but now that I know how homemade fleece yarn knits up, I can start with another pair from a nicer pattern. I'd like to try one with a hand spun wool top and a fleece sole. Later for that.