bioengiknitter

When I think back to my Grandma K, my dad's mom, one thing that always comes to mind is how much I loved going to her house. She always had cookies in the cookie jar, and she made bread with my brother and I in the shapes of teddy bears and our initials. We played and ran around without a care in the world, and sometimes she would knit and crochet. She had a crocheted afghan gracing the La-z-boy in her living room that I remember vividly. And every year she would make my brother and me slippers. The quintessential grandma slippers of the 1970's, complete with a big pompom on the top. We loved getting those slippers, especially living in western Washington where it was cold and rainy and occasionally snowy in the winter.

So when I got back into knitting a couple of years ago and found this pattern while browsing around, I was so excited. These are EXACTLY like the slippers my grandma used to knit for us. The garter stitch foot, the gathered toe, everything. I immediately cast on to make a pair for each of my boys, and my nephew and niece as well.

J's first pair of slippers finally bit the dust about a month ago, they developed a huge hole under the ball of his right foot. As soon as he noticed it he asked for a new pair. As it happens, the ones that I first knit for C now fit J and he's excited to wear those, but he also wanted brand new ones in different colors. And of course C needs bigger ones now. So last Friday ("mom day" around here since that's the day I don't work) we went to Michael's to choose some yarn. I took them to stand in front of the Caron Simply Soft and had them pick out two colors for their new slippers. C was insistent that he wanted his to be black and orange, "not because it's Halloween soon, Mom, I just like those colors." J chose some camouflage-colored yarn and said he wanted that with the black. So three skeins of yarn later, I was knitting new slippers. It only takes an evening of TV watching for one slipper, so in no time they were done. Despite the fact that it's still way too hot for slippers, they've been wearing them:

click for bigger

These slippers are great because with the garter stitch along the foot, they're super stretchy. C's first slippers still fit him, despite the fact that his feet are three sizes bigger now. I can get his new ones on my own feet. So they definitely will fit longer than they last, which is quite remarkable at an age when pants are too short approximately 22 days and 3 hours after you buy them.

And, so you too can knit your own grandma slippers, here are the details!

Pattern: Aunt Maggie's Slippers, by Bev Qualheim of Bev's Country Cottage, a fabulous source of free patterns of all types, but particularly baby, kid, and charity patterns.
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in black and mango, and Bernat Camouflage in Mash. The yarn is doubled throughout the pattern.
Needles: US8 / 5 mm
Gauge: About 3.5 st/in in garter stitch, yarn doubled
Notes:
* C's (kid size 2): I cast on 27 stitches per the pattern for a child, and knit 18 ridges garter stitch for the foot and 10 rows of ribbing before the toe decreases.
* J's (toddler size 12): I cast on 27 stitches, knit 14 ridges on the foot and 8 rows ribbing before the toe decreases.

I miss you, Grandma K. I'm glad that I can continue the knitting of these slippers, it connects me to you and that makes me feel happy.