Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Confessional

So...I'm supposed to be in spin class right now. But, I'm not. I'm not even sure how that happened, but I never made any attempt to go towards the gym after I left the office this afternoon. Just headed straight to the freeway and home. I have no excuses, except if I try really hard I might be able to blame it on my bad lunch. We'll go with that and call it a day. We'll also ignore the fact that I just put a bottle of wine into the freezer to chill.

I also have something to get off my chest. See these slippers:

These are Christmas presents for B's parents and his great aunt...but not for this coming Christmas. Nope. These are for last Christmas...that they received last week. I am SUCH a bad daughter-in-law! This project started innocently enough about this time last year when I cleaned out my closet and found several lovely wool sweaters of the late 80s to early 90s variety. One even had a couple holes.

I set about the process of felting them and researched how to turn them into slippers. I had grand plans of designing them myself, but no matter what I did, I just couldn't get the shape right. This project quickly turned into one of those pre-Christmas nightmares and I was running out of time. And right about the time I realized that there was no way they were going to make it to their destination in time, I realized the fallibility of the Google search: your results are only as good as your search.

Needless to say that Martha Stewart came to the rescue with these easy felt slippers. Unfortunately, a Plan didn't mean that they actually got made. And a few days turned into a few weeks and the next thing you know, you have a wonderfully seasonally inappropriate Christmas gift for your in-laws in September. EXACTLY what I was going for!


I ended up using wool from four different sweaters (and I still have quite a bit left over) and because of their thickness, I did most of the sewing by hand. I also added these groovy grippers to the bottom of each pair with fabric paint as I have no interest at being the cause for anyone's broken neck or hip.


I think they came out pretty good, although there is one pair I managed to get into the sewing machine that doesn't lay as nice as the other two pairs. I do plan to make a pair for myself, but when? I have no idea. Maybe someday when I have long since forgotten about how long I made my in-laws wait for their Christmas presents.

8 comments:

knitzalot said...

Don't feel too bad. You're only human after all. Besides, better late than never, right? Let's see, can I come up with any more platitudes? If at first you don't succeed, try try again!

Octopus Knits said...

Definitely better late than never! The slippers are great!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the slippers are appreciated, no matter when they were received!

Nasus said...

Hey, maybe you can start a tradition so they won't expect this year's gifts until next fall? It's always more fun to receive gifts when you least expect them ;)

Jennifer said...

The important thing is that you got it done! I think they look great.

Anonymous said...

We love the slippers! Since it's so close to this Christmas we can call it even--- And, you are the BEST wife we could have wished for our son and you're definitely the BEST daughter-in-law anyone could have!
Knittersmom

Anonymous said...

Very cute! And it doesn't matter when the gift gets there if it's handmade. At least that's what I tell people when I'm late with a gift! :)

Anonymous said...

now that is a wonderful gift! I love the fabric paint waves on the bottom. : )