Unless you've been living under a rock (or are not a knitter), you've heard of the French Press Felted Slippers (rav link). Super cute, right? Over 850 people on Ravelry have started them and 354 have been finished. Some people have even made upwards of 10 pairs. And of course, after it received the Yarn Harlot's praise (and here), how could one resist?



Let's just say that I'm glad that I didn't buy new yarn to make these. And I wish I could get back my $7 for the pattern.



It all started out innocently enough.






Like others of mentioned this knits up in a breeze. Each piece is less than 50 rows and generally not more than 11 stitches on the needle. On size 15s, it just zooms.



It all came to a screeching halt though with the seaming. My god, the seaming!!!!! It took me about 45 minutes to seam each slipper.






They look alright. They look like other people's at this stage. It wasn't my greatest seaming effort, but the instructions say not to stress, the felting will hide all sins.



For once I was excited about doing laundry. I dutifully and carefully placed each slipper in a pillow case and tied them shut. I washed the slippers with a bunch of towels in hot water. Because I have a front loader, I just had to wait until the end of the cycle to check them. They weren't felted nearly enough. The pillowcases seemed useless as they didn't really even shed any fuzz. Luckily there was still more laundry to be done, so back into the washer (loose) with some sheets for more hot water treatment. This time they came out looking pretty well felted. But to be sure, I popped them into the dryer with the sheets and towels and let that run on super-hot for 45 minutes.






Don't be fooled. It looks sort of cute, but it is hiding a big problem (note the little strap is just laid on, I'm not going to even bother sewing it down).






That my friends is an extra nearly 2 inches of fabric. The instructions say to gather the top heel into a cup so that it will be snug onto the heel. This created a weird deformity. But even without that, they are too freakin' big!!



Maybe I could get them to felt a little bit more, but I doubt it. Even if I could, I would have to do it by hand, but this time of year, my hands are completely raw and dunking them in and out of hot and cold water is more pain than I'm willing to endure for some stupid slippers.



I'm thinking that these are going into the trash. I might try another pair (glutton for punishment, eh?), but I think I'm going to try to redesign them without the seaming and a bit smaller.



On a more positive note, they are my first "ugh" on Ravelry!