Old socks are new again

 So, if you knit socks (which I do) and wear them for a long time (which I do) and patch them (which I do) and patch them again(which I do) you may eventually find yourself with a pair that looks something like this:

This is beyond patching. So, I came up with a new plan. First, I did have to patch the big hole in the heel, in my usual way, which is to pick up stitches and knit over the hole, using a yarn needle to attach it to the piece at the end of each row.

Then, David traced my foot onto a piece of cardboard, and I used that to cut two foot shapes out of wool felt, acquired at our wonderful local craft store.

 
Didn't matter that the heel of one came out a little narrow - I think the cardboard slipped and the scissors weren't very sharp. But, I sewed them on with a simple whipstitch, using black sock yarn (I think that sewing thread would have eventually cut through):

and it worked beautifully! These should have a good second life as slippers. And I will remember that maybe alpaca blend doesn't wear well enough to use for socks, even though they are very cozy. Total time for this project - about two hours, much less than knitting a new pair!