Friday 12 March 2010

Crochet Ugg Style Boots







My niece's Ugg type slippers are finished. They are lovely and sturdy and will be very warm when she wears them. The pattern is Buttoned Cuff Boots by Darla Sims and can be found in an Annie's Attic booklet Slippers by the Dozen 879530. The pattern calls for medium weight worsted wool and as I am never sure what that means in UK terms I just guessed. Some patterns work up better in Double Knit and some in Aran. I think that worsted weight seems to be somewhere in between the thicknesses of wool that we have in the UK.

I used 6x 40 grams of vintage Lister's Kaftan which was an acrylic fine aran that was a bit fluffy. The boots are very firm as I had to crochet the yarn double. For the size that I made I needed a 4mm hook so I used a metal hook as I think that an acrylic or wooden hook would have broken as the work was quite stiff to crochet. I changed the stitch that the pattern used for the cuffs. As with a lot of US crochet patterns I sometimes just cannot grasp what they mean with their description of the stitch. I think this is where the different terminology confuses me. If I could see someone do the stitch then the penny would drop right away

Yesterday I got 2 books from Amazon that I ordered last week.I will post photos of some of the contents on another blog. I am quite pleased with the Crochet for Babies but am still mystified how people can crochet with loopy or textured yarn. There is a lovely white coat and hat with lamb ears but I could never crochet with the "poodle" type wool and I don't think that it would look as nice in plain wool. The front cover jacket is lovely but once again I have read the description of the stitch used and I don't understand what they mean. I will get a hook and some wool and give it a practise. I do wish that they would put a little diagram for unusual stitches showing where exactly to put the hook in as the description isn't making a lot of sense to me and I would like to make the jacket.

I am a little disappointed with the Vintage Baby Knits as I thought that it would have genuine patterns in it whereas it is in fact vintage style patterns revamped in thicker wool in an attempt to make them more appealing to modern mums. I have some fantastic genuine vintage patterns that are far nicer than the patterns in this book. I think if anyone was to go to all of the trouble of revamping patterns then it might have been better to chose some of the nicer ones instead of the ones chosen for this book. This of course if my personal opinion and other people may like the things in the book. I will take photos of some of the better ones and let you make your own mind up about them.

My disability aids arrived today. I thought that they would arrive with a guy to fit them but no. This guy said he is just the delivery guy. He just said phone them up for instructions as to how high to put the legs.He said they are usually adjusted before they are delivered but mine hadn't been. Story of my life? I managed to alter the kitchen stool myself but the toilet aids are a mystery to me. I think that I will have to wait for someone to take off my existing toilet seats for them to be properly positioned. I did sit down on one and the metal arms are very cold to the bare flesh. Considering they are for people up to 25 stones they are very narrow. If I put on another inch then I will be in trouble. I will need a shoe horn to get out of it! I had a bit of a giggle to myself thinking what kind of conversation I would have if I had to ring 999. Visions of the headlines in the local paper. Overweight lady is stuck in the handles of her toilet seat!

Not much sun today. The weather is overcast and quite windy. I have taken a chance and put some washing out to dry. I will have to keep an eye on it as I have a feeling that it will rain very soon.

2 comments:

Beansieleigh said...

Hi Jan! Love your Ugg-slippers! I've been wanting to make a pair or two of SOME kind of slippers for myself, sometime, but am busy making dolls at the moment. I've got 5 going at once, but they're almost done.. I'm just working on hair and faces now! Have a great weekend! ~tina

Zu said...

Those slippers are cute!! I have like dozens of those exact same brown buttons. hehe
lol I really hope you don't get stuck, that is not an ideal situation. I'm sorry, but I may have to giggle if that happens. But only a little bit. ;-)
I can't believe they didn't have anyone to help you with your chair and toilet thingie! If they're aids for disability, then common sense to me would be to assist you with setting them up.
If I end up moving England, I'll have to move near you to help you out. hehe