I now have two completed Tootsie Toasters, using Meg’s in-the-round toe strategy, but I can’t quite figure it out. I’ve done the decrease on the toe cap of the second slipper three times, three different ways, and no matter what I try, it swirls to the right, just like the first one. Meg pulled it off, but even following her instructions* I didn’t get the same result. I finally just went ahead and finished it off regardless, because my feet are cold and these are surprisingly cute and cozy. And because I really want to alter the pattern, so I’ll be doing a different take on it anyway.

As seen in the in-progress shots, for me the change in stitch pattern results in a scalloped edge, which meant putting the heel end together required a little more finesse than just seaming straight down the back. I whipstitched the two sides together, then tucked in the little resulting pooch, creating a heel like you see on a moccasin. Then I carefully stitched that closed from the outside, gathering together one leg of a stitch from above and one from below, invisibly weaving it all together. Finally, I folded the little triangular flap up against the back wall of the slipper and did the same thing, causing that flap to disappear into the mesh of the fabric.

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*She did a k2tog at the beginning of each round for one toe. Then for the other, on each round, slipped the last stitch from needle 3 onto needle 1 before k2tog’ing those two. At least that’s how I understand it, but it didn’t wind up looking any different for me than the first one. Maybe she’ll elaborate in the comments?

(Update Feb ’12: Meg has posted her revisions of this pattern as a free PDF on Ravelry. To see all the Tootsie Toaster-related posts, click here.)