Would you knit a pair of Crocs?

Months ago, I saw a project for crochet covered Crocs on Instagram. I love the idea of taking granny squares and adding a fiber arts twist to the iconic clog. As the New York sheep and wool festival aka Rhinebeck rapidly approached, I wanted to put my unique spin on this craft project.

Instead of following the Mamma Stitches crochet pattern, I decided to design my own version using the stacked stitch technique as a foundation. Before I was a knitwear designer, I used to design sneakers. I've made enough shoes to feel confident in my ability to quickly make some knitted sneaker looking covers for these fake Crocs.

The first step of the process is taping the entire shoe. This allows you to look at a smooth and uniform surface. Later on, if you want to turn this into a flat pattern, simply peel off the tape and stick the pieces onto paper.

Once the shoe was taped, I identified a few features that I wanted to see in my design: a ridge at the toe like a moccasin style, ventilation holes in the toe like a real croc, and a visible stacked stitch motif at the top of the foot. I sketched out the lines of each feature on my shoe, deciding that the most logical starting point was the bottom edge. Once some decisions were made about the yarn, pastel pencils helped me plan the color blocking scheme and order on the taped shoe.

I made a gauge swatch in my chosen yarn. In my notebook, I sketched out a flat diagram of the pattern then measured the important points on the shoe. Using the gauge number, I was able to calculate the rough stitch count of each part of the design.

The shoe starts with a crochet cast on in neon orange Freia Fibers Merino singles leftover from my Zebra Crossing project. The next stage is worked the same simple motif that I use in my Introduction to Stacked Stitches class and in the Zipper Scarf and Eccentricity Shawl.

The darkest color yarn is the main color for this shoe. It's Harrisville Shetland left over from a Scivias Shawl project. The neon yellow is KnitPicks Stroll. Instead working the motif in plain garter stitch, I worked the neon decreases closer to the toe in stockinette stitch with centered stacked decreases for added texture.

Around the toe, my ridge was created by joining a lighter color blue from WoolBearers on the purl side, then working 6 rows (+4 short rows) of stockinette stitch. You then join the main color blue again, purl side facing you as you pick up the neon yellow that was used 6 rows below. this forms the welt like a wallaby style shoe. I left 12 stitches on either side of the shoe out of the ridge so that the fabric would create a wedge and flow with the 3D shape of the clog.

The toe of the shoe is simple, with hidden decreases within eyelets for shaping. The final rows have stacked orange stitches. Stitch count decreases quickly using the zipper motif a second time, mimicking sneaker laces.

Once these covers were made, I sewed in the ends and sewed them onto the EVA foam clog with a double strand of heavy duty button thread. At some point I tried to paint the shoes a different color, but it didn't stick. You can see remnants of orange in the photos.

I got very lucky with this project, each element falling in the place where it was supposed to be and the colors coming together.It transformed the Crocs to really look like a funky knitted sneaker. If I were to do this again, the only change I would make would be to repeat the pattern all the way around the back of the clog, possibly over the strap as well.

Although the pattern was incredibly easy to design, I don't think it will ever become something I compile or sell. Shoes come in many different sizes, and I don't have an accurate way to measure each of them. I would have to buy one of each size figure out the stitch patterns. Of course, if someone wanted to sponsor that project or provide a grading chart for shoe covers, maybe I'd put it in a book or blog post.