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27 May 2009

The shoes are made for walking Last night I started a new project: knitted shoes.

[More:]Dad Swan has quite a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis. His feet are somewhat deformed and he has a very hard time getting comfortable footwear. My father's options are either to spend $500 getting shoes custom made or to endure a prolonged and very painful breaking in period. He doesn’t want to do either, with the result that he usually only owns two pair of shoes and those are get to a horrible condition before he'll agree to their replacement. I knit him slippers with cushioned soles and he loves them and finds them wonderfully comfortable, but of course they’re only good for wearing around the house.

Last night on the train home I had a brainstorm. I’d previously seen a web post written by a woman who cut the uppers off a pair of converse sneakers, knitted new uppers, and then attached them to the sole. Why couldn’t I do something similar? Surely a knitted pair of sneakers would feel like slippers and just give way wherever they needed to.

So last night I went to Zellers and bought a pair of $13 runners and some special craft yarn, cut the uppers off the shoes with an x-acto knife, and started knitting pieces using the old uppers as a pattern. The challenge will be to make them look as much as possible like ordinary running shoes. Dad won’t want to wear anything that looks ridiculous. I maybe won’t be able to make anything that looks good enough to be worn in public, but I’ll be satisfied if I manage to make something Dad can wear around his workshop, since he spends a lot of time out there on his woodworking. Also I need to make the shoes with Velcro closures rather than lace up. Dad finds the Velcro a lot easier to manage because his hands are also bad.

Here’s a picture of the shoes I saw on the web.

I’m hoping I can make my version look more finished and less homemade. I also got plain black yarn rather than magenta, because that seems more like Dad’s style.;-)

I hope this works, but if it doesn't, it's not like I'm out some significant amount of money or time.
Please post after pictures. This is an incredible project!

As for public shoes, a friend of mine just bought some custom shoes off etsy which she loves. I wonder if maybe you can find someone similar near you who has the skill to accomplish that on a more reasonable scale... hm.
posted by eatdonuts 27 May | 14:03
Such a nifty idea! You're a good daughter, orange swan.
posted by deborah 27 May | 14:55
Ooo, yeah, cool project! Blocking might help them look more finished. If the first pair doesn't work as much, I wonder if you could felt a pair, and then dry it on a model of your dad's foot? Just thinking outloud. In any event, definitely post pictures, it sounds great!
posted by Sil 27 May | 15:03
You have a good precedent for knitted shoes. . .
posted by danf 27 May | 15:28
Heh. I saw some knitted shoe artifacts when I was researching the project, danf.
posted by Orange Swan 27 May | 20:35
I was thinking of felting as well, it would look less "knitted" and maybe therefore less slipper-like.
posted by kellydamnit 28 May | 00:31
I've never felted anything. If these shoes turn out to be at all useable I will probably try again and experiment with different ways and means of knitting shoes. I'm wondering if I couldn't somehow manage to make a pair of oxford-style shoes that would pass muster for casual wear.

There's lots of potential for modification for sure. Heck, I've made my father four pairs of slippers so far (he goes through them pretty quickly now that he's retired) and I'm still improving upon the design.
posted by Orange Swan 28 May | 07:32
Yeah, I was thinking felting as well. If you don't want to play around with size problems (Does any one know an infant that needs a blaze-orange cloche?), you can get a black 100% wool sweater from a thrift store, felt it, and then cut the pieces out from that.
posted by Stewriffic 28 May | 07:53
Stewriffic, you're a genius.

And my new little grand niece or nephew could probably use a blaze-orange cloche to go with his or her orange scarf.
posted by Orange Swan 28 May | 10:10
Now I have plans to try making side-zip ankle boots for my father since he has always preferred that style to any other. I’ll just have to watch out for thrift shop shoes and wool sweaters that will be suitable for future attempts.
posted by Orange Swan 28 May | 11:49
I told my niece Peaches about this project via email and now she wants a pair.
posted by Orange Swan 28 May | 21:42
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