This pattern is retired and not usually available. However, I make many of my retired patterns available for a few days twice a year, and this is one of those times! It will be available from now through some time on Monday, December 2. Then it will go away again.

In the summer of 2022, I realized that I found maintaining a back catalog of hundreds of patterns overwhelming. I couldn’t do it and still release new things. So I took my old patterns down so I could keep doing new work.

A few favorites have come back, and lots of new things have come out! But the vast majority of the old patterns are retired and are no longer generally available.

However, enough folks have asked about old favorites that I make many of the retired patterns available for a few days twice a year (usually in early summer and around Thanksgiving).

• If you see the buy buttons on this page, you’ve caught it on one of the days it’s available!
• If you don’t see the buy buttons on this page, then it’s not currently available.
• If you want to hear when the retired patterns are available, subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, or keep an eye on my instagram.

Burgeoning adjective growing, expanding, or developing rapidly

You know when you see a piece of knitting and you feel compelled to pick it up and figure out just how it goes together? Yeah, these slippers are totally one of those. I’ll let you in on the secret. You cast on at the back of the heel, work some increases to make space for the bottom of your foot, work some decreases to shape the gusset, then join to work in the round for the rest of the slipper.

It’s more fun than it has any right to be, you’ll feel awfully clever while you’re doing it, and the end result is both comfy and adorable. I’m not really sure you can ask for too much more from your knitting!

These knit up quickly with a skein of dk, light worsted, or worsted-weight yarn. I knit mine with about 250 yards of dk-weight yarn (and I have women’s size 11 feet, so lots of people have smaller feet than me). I suspect you can comfortably make any size with 300 yards or less.

And just because slippers can look a little funny while you’re making them (especially these, they really do feel rather like a magic trick in the middle), the pattern includes lots of extra photos that show you how the slipper comes together, just so you don’t get nervous!

They’re written in three sizes (56, 60, or 64 stitches around the ball of the foot), and you should feel free to adjust your gauge a bit to fine tune the fit. Just be sure that you’re working at a gauge that gives you a dense, sturdy fabric with your chosen yarn!

I recommend working at something around 6.5, 7, 7.5, or 8 stitches per inch (and remember you’ll want a firm fabric so they feel more substantial than socks…you’ll probably be using smaller needles than you would expect to use with your chosen yarn), and I’ve included a table to help you figure out what gauge you’ll want to use for your size. With that range of sizes and gauges, the slippers will fit a foot (measured around the ball of the foot) between 7.75 and 10.75 inches (with lots of points in between).

These are perfect for you if:

• You like it when your knitting makes you feel clever
• You want all the coziness of hand-knit socks but quicker than you can finish a sock

They’re not for you if:

• You don’t like charts (the pattern uses charts)
• You hate swatching (you need to swatch to check your needle size)