I had some skeins of Bartlett yarn that were given to me in assorted heather colors. They have a medium intensity and I thought the heather would help camouflage the dirt. I knit a cardigan out of Bartlett yarn and I know how warm it is. I was wearing the cardigan when the temperature was in the 40s and I was comfortable. I thought the yarn was a good choice. The original pattern calls for 8 different colors. I'm knitting with 6 and get a repetition I'd rather not have. I think you'd probably need 7 to avoid it.
The slippers are fun to knit. As you can probably guess, each section is knit modular, decreasing from its fullest width. For the most part you pick up and knit along the edges of two adjacent sections. It took only about a week to complete one slipper and I'm more than halfway done on the other. Be warned there are a lot of ends to weave in.
I plan to felt them in a bucket in my tub. I bought a plunger just for this and will put it on the end of the handle of my old broom. There's no way I'm paying over $6 to use the laundry mat washer to felt these. (I have yet to make a friend who will let me use her washer.) At least I know from the Yarn Harlot's effort to felt her French Press slippers that it'll take about 20 minutes.
As I was leaving my mother's on Thanksgiving, she said she'd like a pair if I had enough yarn. Well, the alpaca laceweight yarn that I wanted to knit her scarf out of came all apart when I just wound it in a ball. I think it was that particular yarn. I got out another laceweight and wound that one up successfully. I even knitted a little with it. Those stitches are awfully small, though, and I don't think I have the patience for it this year. I think Mom just might get multicolored slippers for Christmas.
Not all people used 8 different colors to knit the Elfin Booties. There were some awfully pretty variations shown on Ravelry.
If they aren't elven enough for you, you could always try Elf Shoes by Flint Knits:
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