“Put down the needles and step away from the slippers. I promise no one will get hurt, just hand the pattern over and I will figure it out!”  So says that daughter of mine.

It all began as something so simple. A really cute slipper pattern, a short road trip and  a beautiful gift for my BFF…..

I thought this little twisted slipper pattern was soooooo cute. Since I had a two-day road trip coming up and a couple of short flights, less than two hours each, my brain is going perfect. Bought pattern and beautiful yarn and I am ready to go.  I swatched yarn two days before the trip and was spot on gauge. Thinking I would knit one foot going the other foot coming home and have completed one of the many gifts on my list this year.

Packed up the yarn, needles and copies of the pattern in a ziplock ready for “carry-on” knitting.  I waited until I boarded the plane to cast-on. I pulled out the copies I had made of the pattern and realized that my skipping the first page in the copy process I did not have the sizes with me. Confident that I remembered the size breakdown, I cast-on.  Unfortunately I had a business colleague across the aisle from me and he felt it was necessary to chat with me the whole trip. So only finished the sole of the slipper. Got to the hotel room and had three hours before my dinner meeting. Perfect! I put my feet up and continued knitting the slipper.  It seemed small to me……I held it up to my foot….it seemed really small…..but they are slippers and need to stretch to fit on your foot and stay on your foot so kept knitting.

I was buried in meetings at the conference and did not even touch my knitting until I was back at the airport two days later.  Pulled the knitting from my bag and realized why the slipper was small. I picked up the wrong size needle’s when I packed for the trip. One size smaller 4’s instead of 5’s …………..I will take that glass of wine while I frog all the way home.

OK home, a really good nite’s rest, a weekend to solve the worlds problems and the slipper hysteria. Pulled out the Size 5 needle’s double checked needle size, double checked shoe/slipper size and knocked out the first slipper. Looked cute until I put in on my foot. UGH! it was not tall enough to stay on a foot. What was this designer thinking!

Now the stubborn side of me was determined to make this work. Maybe I need a heavier yarn that will change the fit a little. So pulled some yarn out of my stash and cast-on AGAIN. Did not compete this slipper, but did just enough for compare and contrast at knit-night.

That is where the slipper frog party happened.  My daughter and friends around the knitting table all agreed…..everything had to be ripped back and a full do over was required.  The pattern was flawed and a creative re-write would be required to make this slipper fit on anyone’s foot.

So………I have ripped back both “test” slippers, neatly packed away the test stash yarn, and set the beautiful yarn and evil slipper pattern to the side. I know I will come back to it someday soon, but in the meantime I need a simple garter stitch pattern and a drink!