Meet The Slockers

Using up a bit more stash on a pair of Slockers

OK lads and lasses, but probably more lasses than lads, I put out a request last week to ask for ideas on what to knit next. Sarah J. Hunter and I came up with the Slocker, which is like a slipper but sock shaped and very thick. This was the start.
And this is the end:

I know it looks as if I'm standing on the ceiling, but that was because I took the picture myself while wearing them and doing a bit of yoga. I've got them on now (over those socks you see) and I can report that it's so toasty in there that it seems to be keeping my whole self warm. I'm only wearing two layers of yoga kit and for me, that's not normally enough of a dull September afternoon.

I am not going to take you up on your suggestions for matching knickers; that would be a bit ticklish.

I wrote down what I did as I went along, so I can post a pattern. But I used 8mm two-ended needles (as you can see in the top pic) and two strands of kid mohair, one ordinary thickness mohair, one cotton, one double knit wool and one black wool thing I got from Texere that's quite tough, so I can wear them around the house. If you've got a sock pattern, and you know what your'e doing, adapt it to fit and get on with it.
Be careful on shiny wood floors. I might stick or stitch a leather sole on to stop them being quite so slippery, but the floors are getting a good polish.

Excellent for the end of a yoga class when you don't want to put shoes on (or aren't allowed) but don't want to get chilly toes.

FINISHED! Part 2

Here I am then, in classic knitting pattern pose.
I took this on the self timer, running from one end of the room - where the phone was propped on the irnoning board - to the other, because I had 10 seconds to get into the frame, so I got very warm indeed.
I can confirm that its does the trick; it's way too hot to wear at the moment.

I weighed it and it comes in at 1.8kg, so that's 36 x 50g balls, or the equivalent, that you're going to need to get started on your own. It's a fair amount of yarn, but if you're reading this, you've probably got that much in your stash.

I might consider taking orders.
But I'd rather you knitted your own.

FINISHED!

Too tired to post up pics tonight, but the woolly is now sewn up and ready to wear.
I'll create a proper pattern. I also want to weigh it so I can give a rough idea of how much yarn you have to assemble to complete one. Get knitting; it's autumn and you'll be needing one soon.

Long back and sides

I've finished the back, but as it looks almost identical to the front, I've not bothered photographing the whole thing. My friend Bella came round today to get some help with her maths homework, and while she was getting on with it, I finished a sleeve, and here it is.
As you'll observe, it's a bit different from the front
and back, but that's the general idea. (The back is on the left of the pictures.) As you use up one yarn, you attach another one, and I happened to have three balls of a pink/blue/grey super chunky Rowan sitting about annoying me. In they went.

Sleeves.
I cast on 15 (meant to do 16, then realised I hadn't) and knitted 10 rows in single rib. That was just about long enough so I switched to alternative knit and purl rows.
Rows 13 & 15: increased one stitch at both ends - 19 stitches.
Row 19, 23, 27 etc, increased one stitch at both ends.
I kept going until it was long enough. For me that was 40 rows in all. Then I cast off 27 stitches.
(Measure the front to see how far it comes down your arms, then knit so that the sleeves are the right length and width.)

Now to sew it up. And next, I think I'll do big fluffy indoor socks.

A Woolly of Two Halves

That was a football pun, by the way.
Commentators are given to saying "Well it's a game of two halves," meaning that the first one can be very different from the second. And so it is with 5 Degree Woollies.
Here's the front.

(I promise I was smiling behind there.)
I knitted 15 rows of rib, 50 rows of knitting, cast off 10 stitches for each shoulder and kept 16 for the cosy high neck, then knitted another 10 rows ad cast off the 16 neck stitches.

Next: the back. That's going to be the same size, but will change shade again as I start to run out of some of the yarns.

If you don't have much else to do, you could knit one of these in a day. I was about to speed up when it turned into autumn last week. Now that summer's back, I'm not in so much of a rush.