Wednesday, February 6, 2019

the origami slipper and the magic numbers


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


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