Sharon’s Origami slipper.
All in one lined slipper. Toddler size done for
demo.
Lining stitch size (bulky) 4, Outer slipper
stitch size (bulky) 6.
Start with the lining, beginning with the top of
the vamp.
Hang a slip knot on the center needle.
Pull one needle into work on the carriage side,
and knit one row. Repeat until you have 15 needles in work- (14
rows) You are using this increase to
make nice big loops for the SAYG at the end,
Lining toe: shortrow down to 7 and back to
15
Lining Foot- Pull one needle on carriage side
into work, and knit 1 row. Repeat until there are 29 stitches in work.
Lining heel: Shortrow down to 7 and back
to 29.
Outer slipper: Change stitch size to 6.
Change yarn If desired.
Outer heel: shortrow down to 7 and back to
29
Outer foot: Decrease* on the side away
from the carriage, every row, until you are down to 15 needles
Outer foot decrease: 3 prong tool. Move 3 outer stitches in, doubling up on two
needles, and leaving two needles empty on the end of the row. Put the
outer needle out of work, leaving the inner empty needle in work. You are doing a double decrease, and a
single increase.
Outer toe- Shortrow down to 7 and
back to 15.
Outer Vamp
Now, put the lining and the outer slipper
together as they hang on the machine, heel in heel, and toe in toe.
Notice that the lining has handy loops on the vamp and foot edges- 7 on
each side of the vamp and 7 on each side of the foot. While the
outer slipper has the same number of foot rows as the lining, we used a
decrease that does not leave a big loop on the edge. Part of our plan to
have a great looking slipper.
On the side away from the carriage, pick up the
(tight) edge stitch that is the second row down from the one on the needle, and
put it on the end needle. Then, add the corresponding lining edge loop
AND the vamp edge loop. Pull this LOADED needle to forward working position,
and pull another needle of two forward for company. Meanwhile, on the carriage side- using 3 prong transfer
tool. Do single decrease, and put the empty needle out of work. Knit one row.
Repeat until you are down to 1 needle, The
last two rows are the hardest to get those stitches on the end needle,
Persevere. (Yeah, when you get down to 5 needles, switch to a single
prong transfer- which you could use for the whole thing, but I like the triple
prong transfer.) Pull the yarn end through the last stitch.
Alternate strategies for the decrease/SAYG
section: Set your carriage to hold, and put your decrease needle in work position,
but keep the SAYG needle in hold, Knit the row, and then knit the SAYG
needle by hand.
And then I wrote this:
Here is what I have
discovered: The Craft Council chart for foot size says Women's sizes S-M-L are
8-9-10 inches foot circumference. Whatever your stitch gauge is (and row gauge
changes don't have very much effect because the stitch gauge controls the width
of the slipper, and ALSO CONTROLS HALF OF THE LENGTH. So that theoretically
means that ROW gauge will only have half the effect you would expect. And
that's enough to go ahead and just ignore it. The magic numbers for the
slippers are based on your gauge. Let's take a gauge of 4..5 stitches / inch.
For a small size, 8 x 4.5=34. Round up to neariest number divisible by 4. (That
is key.) And add 1 - (Your starting stitch.) So, 37 is the BIG number, the
number of stitches you turn the heel on. Half of 36 is 18- plus 1 gives us 19
and that is the number for the toe turn. Starting with one stitch, you will add
18 (9 left and 9 right) turn a toe, then add another 18 (9 left and 9 right),
Another example- Let's go standard gauge and say the gauge is 6.5 st/inch. 6.5
x 8 = 50 - Round up to 52. Half of 52 is 26. To add the first stitch to these
numbers, and you will be turning toe on 27 and heel on 53. And you will wind up
with 13 increases or decreases left and right.. I think we have all just
learned to fish! Try some more examples. Every one I have tried so far seems to
work out.
Gauge sample with your
outer slipper yarn- I got 5 st/inch on the slipper that came out small= but
would have come out medium at 4.25 st/inch. No need to gauge sample your inner
slipper- it is just a couple numbers tighter than the outer slipper.
However, the directions below walk you through
how to calculate any size. No charts. You only need foot
circumference. Once you make a couple, it will be second nature.
Depends on your gauge. But formula the same no matter gauge
or size of machine. Bulky example: Take a gauge (only need
stitches per inch) for your outer slipper. Say it comes out 5.5 st
/inch. Multiply that by foot
circumference (Okay, 8=small, 9=medium, 10=large.) Let's pretend medium.
5.5 x9 is 49.5 Round up to nearest multiple of 4. 52.
Divide 52 by 2 . So 26.
(Divide 26 by 2 . So 13. This is the number of decreases (outer
slipper) or increases (inner slipper) on each side in the vamp, and in
the foot..)
Add 1 to each of your results.. So the magic numbers
are 53 and 27. 53 This is the
number of stitches you will be knitting on when you turn the heel. Decrease
down to 9 or 11 (around 1/3 of the toe number, or maybe a couple
stitches more than 1/3)) for the heel - then back up. 27 is the
number of stitches you will turn the toe on.
Decrease down to 7 or 9 (around 1/3 of 27) stitches then back up for
toe.
Okay, with liner color, and tension 2 numbers
less than your gauge tension, cast on one stitch, and increase the carriage
side, by pulling a needle into work, until you have 27 stitches, turn a toe,
then continue increasing same way until you have 53 stitches and turn an heel.
Admire your work, and notice you have 13 loops
on each side of the vamp and 13 loops on each side of the foot. Fold the
toe, and see how the sets of loops line up.
Change to outer slipper color, and change
tension to your gauge tension.
Turn a heel.
Now for the decreases. Decrease down to
27 using the following decrease: On the side away from the carriage,
Transfer the outer 3 stitches in, doubling up the stitches on needles 4 and 5,
You will have two empty needles, 1 needle with one stitch and 2 needles
with double stitches. Put the outermost
empty needle out of work. You now have one empty needle, which will pick
up a new stitch when you knit across.
You just decreased 2 stitches, and increased 1 stitch. The loop
for the increase will be smaller and tighter than the increase that you might
make the same way on the carriage side of the row. This is planned, as the outer slipper sayg seam is the one you see
on the finished slipper. Do this decrease every row until there are 27
stitches left.
Turn the toe .
Now,
review what your foot decreases look like, Identify the bar you are going
to pick up for the sayg. Take a contrast thread and run it though the
bars you will be picking up if you think they will be hard to find on the fly.
You are going to pick up 13 bars on each side of the foot in the sayg
part.
Vamp decreases are done on the carriage side,
and sayg happens on the side away from the carriage.
The vamp decrease is just a fashion decrease-
with the 3 prong tool, move three stitches over by one needle, doubling up
stitches 3 and 4 from the edge. put empty needle #1 out of work. When down to 5 stitches- do 1 prong
decrease.
The SAYG on the side away from the carriage.
On the end needle, hang the bar from the decrease row just on the other
side of the toe- should be one or two rows below where you are. Okay, now
pick up the pair of loops on either side of the liner toe fold and put them on
the same needle. (I pull that needle
into upper work position, and add a couple next door needles to keep it
company. Go slow. There's a load
on that needle. If you have a problem
with that, there is an alternate method:
With your machine set to HOLD, Put that sayg needle in hold, knit the
row, and then knit back the sayg stitch by hand. Depending on your yarn,
this can be a faster neater way. In any
event, the first loop added is the outer slipper loop, and then the pair of
liner loops. Get it down to 1 stitch,
and break your yarn and draw it through your last stitch.
things you can fiddle with: make a
longer slipper by using a little looser gauge- ditto for wider. The two dimensions are dynamic in this
pattern.
Rule of thumb for foot circumference: Baby/toddler 4 , 4.5, 5. Child 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5 Woman 8,9.10, Men 9,10,11, 11.5
