These elfin house shoes are a simplified riff on traditional Icelandic garter-stitch insoles. These detailed wool inserts were at one time given as gifts to travelers wearing soft shoes made of sheep or fish leather. Journeys were measured in how many pairs of insoles and shoes had been worn through.

My hybridization shoe starts with an unembellished but shapely insole. Stitches are picked up and knit in the round with precise shaping and decorative sections of garter stitch. Humble but handsome, they’re finished with a simple silk ribbon, but they could just as easily be embellished with embroidery, beadwork, or intarsia, as with the Icelandic originals.