It is Christmas Eve as I am typing this and I JUST finished up my last Christmas present. Nothing like waiting until the last minute huh?

This year, my mom and my sister-in-law will both be receiving a pair of these super simple and yet super comfortable knit slippers.

The thing that cracks me up is that I’ve already given my mom three pairs of these slippers but she loves them so much that she keeps asking for more. In fact, even though she knows that she is getting a pair for Christmas, she has already put in an order for another pair for her birthday in January. That will make FIVE pairs of slippers that I’ve made for my mom over the past year.

Lucky for me, these slippers are super simple to make and are a fairly quick project for anyone who knows how to knit and purl. I wish I knew where this pattern came from originally so I could give the creator credit, but I honestly don’t know. I just know that I was at a Sip ‘n’ Stitch session (yes–wine and knitting are excellent companions as long as your pattern isn’t too complicated–ha!) at my local yarn shop and one of the knitters showed us the great slippers that she was making. She had the pattern memorized so I made her recite it to me as I scribbled it down on the back of a Wendy’s receipt that I had in my purse. Thankfully, once you’ve made a pair of these slippers the pattern really is easy to remember (though, I did transfer the pattern into a word file on my computer–just to be safe!)

In this tutorial, I’m not going to teach you how to knit because there are so many great YouTube videos out there that give much better instructions than I ever could. You can click here for my favorite video for absolute beginners (I love how fun Chandi is and I want her awesome silver nail polish!) Once you’ve mastered the knit and purl stitch–these slippers will be a breeze for you to make and give to all of your friends, and hey–if you want to make another pair for my mom, I’m sure she’d appreciate it.  

Fab-YOU-lously Simple Knit Slippers

Gather Your Supplies

All you need to make these slippers are: Knitting needles size 5 (I use my beautiful KnitPick circular needles but straight needles are fine), two skeins of worsted weight yarn (the pattern is knit with two strands of yarn held together so pick colors that look pretty together. Also, I wouldn’t suggest using wool because it’ll shrink if you toss your slippers into the washer. I just use cheap acrylic yarn and the slippers still look super cute), scissors, a tape measure and a yarn needle.

Cast On

Using two strands of yarn held together, cast on 28 stitches for a small woman’s slipper or 32 stitches for a larger woman’s slipper. You can also adjust the size down to a child’s size by casting on 24 stitches for a medium child’s slipper or 20 stitches for a smaller child’s slipper. The nice thing about these slippers is that they are stretchy and therefore very forgiving when it comes to sizing. In fact, I prefer to make my slippers a bit on the small side because of their tendency to stretch.

Work the Pattern

Once you have cast on the appropriate number of stitches, work in Garter Stitch (knitting every row) for five inches.

After you’ve reached the five inch mark, begin the ribbing by knitting in a K2, P2 sequence across all stitches. Continue this ribbing pattern until the piece measures one inch less than the length of your foot (or the foot of whoever will be wearing the slippers!)

Next, *K2 tog; repeat from * across the row. This will leave you with half as many stitches on your needle as when you began.

Repeat K2 tog. for one more row which will once again cut the number of stitches remaining on your needle in half.

Finishing

Cut your yarn leaving a long tail. Thread your yarn needle with the yarn ends and pass through the stitches on your knitting needle (slipping them off of the knitting needle and onto the yarn needle. Pull the stitches up tightly and fasten the yarn securely. Use the yarn to then sew up the slipper until you get to the end of the ribbing. Secure the end.

Using the cast on tail, you will now sew up the heel seam. This should leave an opening for the foot.

Voila–one FabYOUlous slipper is now complete. Simply repeat the entire process for the other slipper.