I fell for felting

Okay, not really although having just finished my first ever felting project, I do feel like a magician and wizard.  How did these gigantic slippers ....

Cascade 220 on No. 13 needles

turn into these fabulous regular women's size slippers?

My wonderful friend Beverly is a huge fan of felting.  I've had many a debate with her about the "fun" of felting and had my doubts, but I wanted to make something special for my niece, Nicole, and she showed me a pair of felted clogs that she liked.  For her, I'll make anything so I promptly bought the pattern, went to my LYS, Knitting Nation, bought three skeins of Cascade 220, and started knitting.

The pattern is well-written but I had to pay close attention since there was a lot of counting and re-counting.  I usually can watch a movie or chat with a friend when I knit but there was no way I could do either while knitting these slippers.  In fact, if Mark (hubby) or the kids were in the same room when I was working on this project, I had to warn them that I would be rude and ignore wouldn't be able to chat with them.

Upon making the final touches, I realized that I have a front-loading washing machine which is not conducive to felting (or so I thought).  Ravelry came to the rescue with great advice from one of the forums.

After two hot cycles and one cold cycle

Just in time, too, as my family got together for Mother's Day at my mom's house and I gave Nicole her belated birthday gift.

Brand new felted clogs on my lovely niece