Are there buy buttons on the side of the page? If so, you've caught this pattern on one of the handful of days every year when it's available! If not, read on for details of where it went and what to do if you want to be notified the next time it's available.

A few years ago I got overwhelmed by my back catalog, retired most of my earlier work, and launched Tiny Nonsense. That gave me space to make Cool New Stuff! But some people missed the earlier things, so I make many of the retired patterns available for a few days once or twice a year.

• If you see the buy buttons on this page, you’ve caught it on one of the days it’s available! You can buy it just like usual.

• If you don’t see the buy buttons on this page, then it’s not currently available. It will probably be available the week after Thanksgiving and for a few days in June or July.

• If you want to hear when the retired patterns come back, subscribe to the mailing list or patreon, or keep an eye on my instagram.

Burgeoning adjective growing, expanding, or developing rapidly

You know when you see a piece of knitting and you feel compelled to pick it up and figure out just how it goes together? Yeah, these slippers are totally one of those. I’ll let you in on the secret. You cast on at the back of the heel, work some increases to make space for the bottom of your foot, work some decreases to shape the gusset, then join to work in the round for the rest of the slipper.

It’s more fun than it has any right to be, you’ll feel awfully clever while you’re doing it, and the end result is both comfy and adorable. I’m not really sure you can ask for too much more from your knitting!

These knit up quickly with a skein of dk, light worsted, or worsted-weight yarn. I knit mine with about 250 yards of dk-weight yarn (and I have women’s size 11 feet, so lots of people have smaller feet than me). I suspect you can comfortably make any size with 300 yards or less.

And just because slippers can look a little funny while you’re making them (especially these, they really do feel rather like a magic trick in the middle), the pattern includes lots of extra photos that show you how the slipper comes together, just so you don’t get nervous!

They’re written in three sizes (56, 60, or 64 stitches around the ball of the foot), and you should feel free to adjust your gauge a bit to fine tune the fit. Just be sure that you’re working at a gauge that gives you a dense, sturdy fabric with your chosen yarn!

I recommend working at something around 6.5, 7, 7.5, or 8 stitches per inch (and remember you’ll want a firm fabric so they feel more substantial than socks…you’ll probably be using smaller needles than you would expect to use with your chosen yarn), and I’ve included a table to help you figure out what gauge you’ll want to use for your size. With that range of sizes and gauges, the slippers will fit a foot (measured around the ball of the foot) between 7.75 and 10.75 inches (with lots of points in between).

These are perfect for you if:

• You like it when your knitting makes you feel clever
• You want all the coziness of hand-knit socks but quicker than you can finish a sock

They’re not for you if:

• You don’t like charts (the pattern uses charts)
• You hate swatching (you need to swatch to check your needle size)