Duffers

My first project for 2021 was a pair of felted slippers called Duffers.

This is one of the easiest, fastest and most satisfying projects I’ve worked on for months.

I used an unspun Icelandic wool called Plotulopi from Istex, and Morris and Sons Norway 8ply held together.

I made one change to the pattern as written by knitting the sole of the slippers with three strands of yarn instead of two – doubling the Plotulopi. For the next pair of Duffers I make, I’ll use three strands throughout for a denser felt.

The pattern calls for 8mm needles, so once the knitting is finished, they are huge, loose and shapeless. After knitting they go into the washing machine for a hot wash with a pair of jeans.

I put mine through two 30 minutes cycles at 50 degrees Celsius using normal laundry powder.

When they came of of the machine, they were perfectly felted and just the right size.

I put the still-wet slippers on my feet to shape them a bit and then sat them in the sun to dry. They dried very quickly so I was able to jump straight into the next steps within two hours.

In the picture here, you can see that they are quite hairy. I tidied them up using hair clippers without a comb or guard, being careful to avoid nicking the fabric. If you don’t have hair clippers, you can give them a trim with sharp scissors held flat against the fabric.

Next, I embroidered them using cotton embroidery floss. There are instructions for how to embroider roses like these here. The green stitching around the edge is a line of lazy daisy stitch.

Because the felted fabric is uneven, I found it best to aim for rustic looking embroidery rather than perfectly even stitches.

It’s very satisfying to start off the year with such a quick project, and it all of the yarn and embroidery thread was from stash too! I plan to make more Duffers very soon.