Family slippers

Here they are.

Pleasing pile of alpaca

Half of them at least.

Imagine this picture with 7 pairs. *sigh

And you have to trust me that the other half were delivered because I handed them over, and then remembered to photograph them.

In a bad case of Absolutely not Learning My Lesson About Furry Yarn, I tried to make myself a pair in this.

Moda Vera Flurry. Feels nice around my toes, nasty on the hook.

 Once again, couldn't read the stitches and failed to count them accurately so I have no hope in hades of  replicating the one sad little slipperish shaped object that is slumped in a heap at the bottom of my crochet bag.

Sulky flurry rodent.

Turns out i can(dle)

Look what I made.

waxed faffage

Making christening candles is far out of my handmaking comfort zone, and frankly not anything I am the least bit interested in repeating (I don't think. However...)

It seems to me a bit odd and frankly a little grim to burn a picture of your loved one. But convention is as convention does, and I was darned if I was going to pay some other sucker to make the silly thing.

Basically, I went through a range of contortions and tricks to get the photo onto tissue paper, position it on the candle, wrap it in waxed paper, and apply heat. Easier said than done, much ink and wax everywhere.

How this actually works is that the surface of the wax melts, soaks into the tissue and then hardens again. There is no ink transfer as such, and the waxed paper is only there hold the tissue evenly and smoothly against the candle.

I wish one of the many many DIY tutorials I read had explained this, because I spent  a great deal of time searching for waxed paper, and eventually gave in and bought greaseproof on the the offchance.

I know the two are different, and can't often be substituted, but in this case they can. Just so you know...

I'm not entriely convinced it won't go up in a ball of flame if it burns down to the tissue (assuming the ribbon and sticky diamantes don't do the job), but I doubt I'll ever find out (see above: squeamishness as incinerating face of small child).

Unseasonal slippers

I must be looking forward to the cooler weather, as I've spent the last week or so as Ive broken up work on the soul eater with hooking up a series of slippers.

I've now got a long list of requests, so here's hoping the mood stays with me, otherwise this could get very tedious indeed.

First up a test pair for me, from the simple cable slipper pattern.  

Cosy alpaca. Perfect for February in Australia.

These are in the most gorgeous, easy to use, and affordable alpaca yarn, sourced from, of all places, Spotlight. On clearance is was only $2 a ball (about 47m) so these sample slippers cost less than $4. 

I used them to test puff paint as a non-slip sole. The result is too ugly for words:

Words fail.

For a start, it never occurred to me that this colour choice would look less like a design decision and more like the innards of a small marsupial.

But, it works, and the stretch paint works best. Obviously. I didn't know it existed until too late.

Next, a jersey pair, better for the climate here. Not sure how comfy they are though. I can't decide.

Jersey slippers are slightly more seasonal. Slightly. 

Then cosy posy toes for DearWife. The pattern is really elegant, with the flowers added as you go. DearWife was extremely patient in surrendering her feet to fittings, allowing me to modify the heel a little as i went. 

The yarn was suprisingly lovely to work with - a cotton weave that is light and firm, but seems to retain its shape.

Pretty toes

Next up, five nephews, one niece, one son, and five assorted in-laws. Simple.