Slippers!!!!

This could also be called

The January Jinx

and if I were smart, I might swear off knitting for the rest of the month. I'm not that smart, though. I will use the remaining 20 days of this month as an opportunity to practice the Maintenance of an Even Temperament in the Face of Adversity (Even That Occasioned by One's Own Idiocy Stupidity Mortality).

This year I have knit some mittens I am calling The Frogged Project. And with that, begun last Monday, the January Jinx began. Knitting was going beautifully, until I got to the stranded section above the ribbing and discovered I had the wrong number of stitches. Starting with the cast on. Frog, and re-knit. I dove into the stranded section with delight (one can only take so much ribbing, after all) and was doing dandy until I was drawing to the close of the mitten. And there I discovered that it was Way Too Long. A bit of digging revealed that there was a bit of a gauge problem ... the item needed to be Severely Blocked, so while I had stitch gauge nicely, the row gauge was Severely Off, and smaller needles were called for. Frog back to the ribbing. Stick tongue out at knitting. Proceed. Later on in the same project, I picked it up to do some knitting, glanced at it to make sure I was where I thought I was, and knit merrily away. 400 stitches later, I glanced down to see if I was ready for the next part of the pattern ... and discovered that all 400 stitches needed to be frogged since I was ready for the next part of the pattern when I picked up the knitting.

Pffft.

Next, I knit a beehive hat. It was great and grand, until I washed it. Then it grew so that it sat on my shoulders and would have fit a kitchen trash can. I frogged it and reknit it while it was still damp.

Then I made slippers. Slipper one went beautifully. Slipper two went along nicely, right up until the second round of the 'upper.' At which point I realized ... hey, the FIRST slipper didn't look like this. Uh-oh.

And the January Jinx hit me. Cast on, frog, finish project. Repeat.

So, I finished the second slipper, frogged the upper of the first, reknit it (it's quite tricky to knit the upper of a slipper when the center of the sole is seamed. And I just sliced through the cuff. My ends were woven in too well, and hidden and snagged in the little tube quite secretly) and then today?

Today, I *felted* the slippers. I felted them with great watchings. Check every 5 minutes? No way! I checked every 2-3 minutes. The familial consensus is they're a bit large, but I'm not putting them in for another 2 minutes. Nuh-uh. They fit the circumerence of my foot snugly, the length is just a smidge long, and the opening is loose. They will do.

And my old ones are in the TRASH.

I suppose I could rescue them and cut out pieces, roll them up, and let my son use them in his marshmallow blaster. But I don't think so.