Today I am going to work on some knitted slippers for Noel to use at school. They sent home a list of thing he will need. Slippers and a bookbag and regular shoes (sandals verboten). So, we spent the weekend trying to find some of those things.

I always feel strange buying shoes for my kids. The shoelady puts them on their feet and the shoes just look SO BIG. Too big. One year (out of only 4 years I've been a mother), I made them give me a size smaller. I understand the whole growth factor thing, but it is strange to see such big shoes on my little kids. Shoes that are a whole inch longer than their current feet. Perhaps the scariest thing is that my kids' feet will be that big by the end of the season.

They grow up so fast.

Yet, at the same time, I dream of the day when I can walk around a house not cluttered with Thomas the Tank Engine, Matchbox cars and Happy Meal toys.

Though, in a few years, what new clutter is in store for me?

Sooooo, Noel got some big boots. Shit kickers as my friend Eliz used to call them. I suppose a lot of people call them that, but I'll remember hearing it from her first. Eliz was sort of like Winnie-the-Pooh meets a Head-Banger sort of person. She scared the crap out of me during our "circle time" college get-to-know you stuff. I was the quiet person with docksiders on sitting next to her. She had her shit kickers on.

Bella Cardi Court
I'll put this in right before my morbid thought simply because I was working on it when the thought occurred to me. Here is the back and here are the sleeves. One of the fronts is almost done. Keep your fingers crossed that I will have enough yarn. The pattern calls for 487 meters of yarn and I have 359 meters. Do you think I'll make it? It seems like I just might strangely enough. If I don't, I can possibly use a complementary yarn for the collar.

Caution
Random morbid thought:
Have you ever been riding in the car, knitting away, and you suddenly think, "I wonder where this pointy, aluminum, single-pointed knitting needle would end up if we had a car crash?"

A few days ago, the kids and I got in the car and took a trip to visit Joanne's Fabric to see if they had any Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool. Of course, there was only one skein left so I snatched it up. It had over 400 yds. I liked that.

I do not like the smell of wet sheepy smelling wool mixed with artificial cherry flavor.

Noel picked which packet to do next.

Click to see the final result.

Materials
1 skein Hawthorne Cottage Handpainted Yarn
#2 Straight needles
1 Invisible zipper

Gauge
26 stitches and 32 rows to 4 inches

Note: this is an DK weightish yarn knit tightly

CO 16 sts and K 11 rows.

CO 14 sts at beg f next 2 rows and K 8.5 inches even, making sure to slip 1st st of every row.

Cast off 14 st at beg of next 2 rows and K 10 rows. Bind off.

At this point, you can decide which side of the fabric you want to be the outside of your bag. The one pictured is reverse stockinette.

Seam up sides, making slipped edges meet in the center of the top. Shorten zipper if necessary and baste into place. If satisfied with zipper's look, then sew it in for good (by hand).

Copyright Leigh Spencer