These are the Aran Isle slippers from the new Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2008 issue. They are an early Christmas gift for my sister, Teresa. Her home has hardwood floors and these slippers will come in handy for her this winter. She wears a size 6.5 shoe so I made these slippers a bit smaller than the pattern size of 7 to 8. I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in the Bubble colorway and my size 5 Addi Turbo needles giving me a gauge of about 6 sts to the inch. I made them a little shorter, too, and added a round to the back of the slippers to compensate for the tighter row gauge. I knitted short rows for the shaping rows of the cabled uppers. I like the seed stitch pattern, however, I prefer an odd number of sts to knit seed stitch in the round and adjusted the pattern accordingly. The soles are knit slightly differently for the left and right feet and I sewed 5 sts of duplicate stitch in contrasting spare sock yarn to mark the right foot for her. I also discovered that if I buy one more ball of yarn (these slippers require 2 balls of yarn), that I can make her another pair so that she will have an extra set. I found the pattern to be a bit tedious, yet it does make a nice gift.
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