felting fun

I've made some felted slippers for Christmas gifts this year - quick, easy, done on the machine, and quick sew up, and into the washer. What I find interesting is how different yarns react. These samples are all exactly the same - that's one of the nice things about knitting on the machine - no worries about tension or anything else. Set the number of stitches and use the row counter, and voila! all the same.

These 4 slippers are all alike - 40 stitches (every other needle), 60 rows, highest possible tension setting on my LK-150. The solid coloured ones on the left are made from Gjestal Naturgarn, and the striped ones on the right are Needful Joy. Both yarns are similar in construction - a loosely spun single fibre. The Joy is much, much softer than the Gjestal, which feels somewhat coarse in comparison. As you can see, the Needful Joy ones knit up bigger, yet felted much smaller! (No, these aren't pairs, there is a matching set to these four slippers...) They were all felted at the same time - I put a pair of slippers in a zippered pillowcase, and toss them in my washing machine (top-loader)with an old throw mat, hot water wash, small load setting, cold water rinse, and a dribble of Eucalan. This is one pass through the machine, and I was happy with the results when I opened the pillowcase with the Gjestal. Then I got to the Joy - when I made these rainbow striped slippers, I originally planned them for my Mom. My size 9 wearing Mom. Right. They don't even fit my 7 year old son. Not to worry - I found a recipient for them, but she has a sister, which necessitated the need for the blue/green striped ones. Can't have something for one, and not the other!
I still wanted to make a pair for my Mom, so back to the yarn store. They had a very nice pink stripe Joy (Mom's favourite colour is pink). I got 4 balls this time, and adjusted the stitch and row count. 55 stitches wide by 96 stitches long. (Mom has very thin feet - unlike her daughter's paddle feet...) Here's one pre-felting:

(6 inch ruler inserted for scale). They were approximately 20 inches long - it's pretty funny. Hubby is used to seeing strange things coming off my needles, so he didn't even flinch. Will they work?
(Last minute addition - they worked! They are too skinny for my feet (PERFECT!), and a touch too long for me (ALSO PERFECT). They are also still wet, and hubby was hanging around, so no picture taking took place.