Travelling Slippers Done!

I've been working on them steadily for the last few days and they are finally done!

I had to make a point of working on them at home after the easy "take-along" knitting was done. I got the edging around the opening done and then knit the strap. This is where it was getting dicey about whether I had enough yarn left. To give myself a heads up, I marked the half-way point of what I did have left with a knot and then rolled the yarn back into a ball. This way if I got to the knot before I had finished the edging and strap for one slipper, I would know I didn't have enough for the other. But it all worked out fine and I had enough with just a little left over.

The first strap, however, didn't turn out very well but I learned enough to know what to do the next time. The main problem was the kniton cast on which looked terrible. Switching to the cable cast on fixed that and then I did a little shaping around the buttonhole so it would have a rounded end instead of being so square and blocky. So I ripped the strap out and then went to sleep (it was very late) with thoughts of being able to lick it next time I got to it.

Well, the next time I got to it was at the airport waiting for someone to arrive. I got there very early and then his flight was 45 minutes late so I had time to make two straps and do the edging on the second slipper. [An airport turns out to be a very good place to knit without being bothered or interupted, and I had nothing else to do!] Today I sat down and stitched the second one up while watching football--my team wasn't playing so I didn't really have to watch closely--and found some buttons, and voila, done!

What was also pushing this along was the fact that I'm going "home" for Christmas this week and I wanted to be able to show my mom the finished project. She was interested and liked them very much when she visited in November so I like to reward that with a finished object to look at! (Let's be honest, not just to look at, but also to admire!) Plus her house will be much cleaner than mine so I can wear the slippers without fearing too much about how dirty they're going to get. (My half-constructed, half-destructed house is definitely not the place to wear them.)

It feels so good to get projects finished! My Ravelry record says I started them on Oct 24 so they took just about 2 months in all, with other projects in between, of course.

I now have four pairs of slippers that I can think of off the top of my head. I don't think that's too many...is it?

-christina

ETA: 2nd place ribbon at the 2009 County Fair (misc knited item)