Crafting: Norwegian House Slippers

I have been doing a lot of crocheting lately. I have been crocheting for many years, but I am not extremely skilled. I am hoping that over the next year to improve my skills. For Christmas I tried to make slippers for everyone, but I did not have enough time. In my search for neat slippers patterns I found a great pattern for crocheted Norwegian House Slippers. They are similar to another pattern I have been working on, but what I liked about these slippers is that they are felted. I thought that felting would make them warmer and more shoe like. So I set out to make a pair. Well I made a few missteps. My biggest mistake was adding the white yarn stripes. Even though the brown and white are the same yarns, the white shrunk more. The other mistake I made was making them too small! If you look at the before picture you would never think that would be a problem. I mean look at them, they are over 18 inches long!

But look what happened when I felted them:

They shrunk over 7 inches! They also puckered along the white yarn lines. I am a bit sad about how they came out. Next I am going to try a similar method, but I am going to use Granny Squares to make them. I wonder how big I am going to need to make them. I suspect that Granny Squares will shrink even more.