I’ve always wanted a pair of those little Mary Jane slippers, the kind they sell at Target around Christmas time with the little rubbery nubbins on the bottom. The problem is I have small feet. I wear size 5 ½ in womens, size 3 in kids, size 4 in men’s. Small. All those cute Target slippers slide right off my cold little feet.

So now that I’ve learned to knit, I was browsing Ravelry for a new project so that I could expand my repertoire beyond scarves and wristlets, and I found a pattern that shall remain anonymous for very easy, beginner Mary Jane slippers. Perfect! I could make them just my size. And I already had the perfect buttons picked out.

I cast on my 30 stitches of Cadena in Coal and started garter stitching. As I began knitting, I had the creeping suspicion that these were going to be much too big. This was my first time using a pattern, and I was nervous I’d done something wrong so I went to Kelley. When I asked Kelley what she thought and showed her my pattern, and she candidly told me that my slippers were hideous, and I needed to frog them and go get a different pattern from Tina pronto. But did I listen to Kelley? No. I kept knitting. I decreased. I sewed 3 inches together at the toe and crocheted a strap. I wove in all the ends. And I ended up with… this.

Not exactly the cute Mary Jane I’d envisioned and definitely not my size. I tried it on with my puffiest, thickest socks, and it still didn’t fit. I made my boyfriend try it on, he wears a size 10, and it fit him perfectly. However, he refused to wear it since he said it looked like a watersock his grandmother would have knit and a rather girly watersock at that. Sigh.

So now I have one lone elfin, girly watersock/slipper. I can’t bear to cast on the second and I don’t want to frog the first.

At least my new 16 inch Harmony circulars just arrived. Now I can start my legwarmers and knit until the slippers are just a distant memory. Wish me better luck with those.

As for my Mary Jane slipper fantasy, I’m headed to Target today to see if any of the kids’ sized slippers are still on sale from last Christmas. <