Celebrating County crafts people
Fiber Arts
by Michele Goldman
The creative spirit is alive in Aroostook County. Everywhere you look, people are engaged in all manner of crafty pursuits. Long winters contribute to this impulse, but there’s a cultural influence here as well. Skills passed on through generations that make the most of limited resources have made Mainers in general, and County folks in particular, formidable crafts people.
Local quilters Sylvia Buob and Alex Cheney will join me each week as we explore the craft traditions — new and old — of Aroostook County.
Let’s start with a staple of Maine’s Acadian community — pichous. These are slippers knit by memeres all over the state and in Canada. They are very simple in their construction and a perfect project for new knitters. There are many variations, but the basics are the same for nearly all of them. A rectangle is knit as long as the foot and a slipper of sorts is created by sewing up the short ends at front and back. Pompoms are attached to the top and, voila! Pichous!
Checkerboard Pichous
Using one color of worsted weight yarn, cast on 72 stitches on a #8 (5mm) needle.
Row 1 – Using second color, knit 6. Tug on first color and knit the next 6 stitches. Working across, continue in this manner, alternating colors and tugging the next yarn before knitting with it. Tugging the yarn gives the slippers a puffy ribbed effect.
Row 2 – Knit 6 using same color you ended with, being careful to anchor the contrasting color by twisting it with the working yarn at the beginning of the row. Knit the next 6 stitches with the other color, tugging it across as you did the first row. Continue to the end.
Rows 5 and 6 – Repeat rows 1 and 2.
Row 7 – Change the color sequence, beginning with color 2. Knit as you did for Rows 1 and 2.
Knit in this manner, creating squares of alternating colors until your slipper is 9 squares long.
Begin the 10th square by decreasing in the following manner:
Row 1 – K1, K2Tog, K1, K2Tog. Repeat for each square, reducing from 6 st/square to 4.
Row 2 – K1, K2Tog, K1 in each square. This will reduce each square to 3.
Rows 3 and 4 – Knit in pattern.
Row 5 – K1, K2Tog in each square, reducing the stitch count to 2/square.
Row 6 – K2Tog to the end, leaving 12 stitches.
Cut yarn, leaving a tail about 12 inches long. Thread one of the colors through a needle and pull it through the 12 stitches. Pull tightly. This forms the toe of the slipper. Using the same yarn butt the two sides together and sew up 4 squares. This will close the slipper over the foot.
Sew the back together to form a heel. Make a pompom — or not — and sew it to the top of the foot.
Michele Goldman owns Fiberphilia yarn shop in Presque Isle.
