Friday, October 14, 2005

Advice Needed

I told you a couple days ago that my friend had started her first pair of felted clogs. She's having so much fun with them that she now wants make them for her family for Christmas. Her question to me yesterday was whether she should felt them before giving them as gifts or felt them after. I've always thought the idea of doing it after was really neat. I can just imagine the looks on the faces of the recipients when they see these HUGE clogs. And, I find the felting process absolutely fascinating. Plus it's fun. I'd love to do this with my own family but I knit so many of the damn things that they've all seen them at some stage or another and there would be no shock factor. Maybe I'm wanting to live vicariously through Diane. Maybe that's why I think it would be fun for her to felt them after she gives them to her family. But on the other hand, I also have a hard time with the idea of giving a gift that isn't finished. Would you prefer to gift them finished or unfinished? How would you prefer to receive them if you were the gift getter? Getter. LOL Is that even a word?

We had to run to the dollar store last night for paper towels. On the way to the checkout Dailaesse spotted some plastic high heel dress up shoes for little girls. She got excited. "Oh Mama. Just look at these. Wouldn't I be precious in these? Pretty please can I have them?" In the cart they went. Then we stopped at McDonald's on the way home to grab something quick for dinner. We got home and Dailaesse insisted that she needed to put her pretty new pink shoes with the butterflies on them on her feet right away. I told her she needed to eat her dinner first. I knew right where this was headed. She begged and screamed. I opened the shoes. She promised to eat. Right. She slipped the shoes on and pranced across the living room. "Look Mama! I am so beautiful in these new tip toe shoes!" Tip toe shoes??? I couldn't stop laughing. She's too cute. By the way, she finally ate her chicken after she danced for about half an hour. Yum. Cold McDonald's.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think she should felt them if she knows the shoe sizes. I would want to wear them right away. She could always take another clog along that isn't felted yet to show them how big they are before shrinking.
My girls used to love those little plastic heels too. They are 15 & 13 now so I don't get to buy those cute dollar store shoes anymore. (sigh)

Leslie said...

Tip Toe Shoes??? All she needs is a ukelele (spelling?), a pot of tulips or a dress with tulips and a Tiny Tim hairdo... I bet you could do something up like that for Halloween - except it's not a fairy princess and she wouldn't understand why all the adults laughed when they said she's so sweet. Oh well - it's a great picture in my mind at least.

Anonymous said...

I think that letting the recipients felt them would be fun. I am planning to do slippers for my nephews. Two of them live out of state, but I know that my sister will like doing this with them. I guess, you just have to consider who they are going to and decide based on their personalities.

Lynn
Overland Park, KS

Anonymous said...

my 4yo calls them "clip clop shoes"!

I vote for unfelted, too!

Anonymous said...

Tell your friend to give them away unfelted. We had a good laugh when I gave my dad an unfelted pair. He tried hard to come up with something nice to say about them while we were all trying hard not to laugh. He was very relieved to find out that they really weren't finished. It was nice to have him nearby while I felted them so that I could shrink them down to just the right size. He's a convert now and won't wear anything but those slippers!

Anonymous said...

Depending upon the recipient, either way could work very well. I've got friends and family who would never get around to felting them. They'd sit on teh washer forever, waiting for their owner to find the time and energy to get the job done. And then they're just one more thing that has to get done. On the other hand, it's a great way to avoid doing something else you really should do. :o)

Cheers!

Blog Archive