Jo's Leg Warmers

A few months ago my friend Jo (who I've known since high school) approached me about making her a pair of custom leg warmers.  She couldn't find any that fit her properly and in a style that she wanted.  So I set out to design a custom pair for her.

We started out with the basics - she wanted something warm and cozy, and in a material that was machine washable.  My first thought was to use a wool/acrylic blend, but to really make it warm and cozy I thought it would be better to use a merino superwash.  I think if budget was an issue I would have definitely chosen the wool/acrylic blend, but because Jo was willing to spend a bit more, I opted with Cascade 220 bulky superwash.  It's so soft! :D  I'm in love with this yarn :)  Plus it came in the colours she was looking for :)

She told me she wanted a gray pair, with a teal stripe down the side with orange buttons on the top.  She like the idea of having a cable go down the side with the stripe.  The only issue I had with the cables is the fact that a leg calf would cause an uneven stretch along the length, which would distort the cable pattern more at the top (the cables would look more wider at the top).  I still wanted to keep the idea of a cable pattern, so I designed it so the bottom half of the leg warmer stripe had a cable detail.

At first I was trying to knit the leg warmer as a round, changing colours without cutting the yarn (imagine the amount of weaving in the ends if I did!), but I found it was too loose between the stripe and the body of the leg warmer.  This is when I made the split decision to start over and knit the body of the leg warmer and stripe separately, then kitchener-stitch it together.  I found some reddish-orange buttons, and here's what I came up with:

 

The pieces were knit from the top down.  The buttons are in actual button holes - I had to knit an overage piece on the body of the leg warmers and attached the buttons there).  

Jo loves them :) And they keep her calves nice and warm :)

S and her new hat

I finished S' hat :)  It only took a lazy 3 days to finish the hat.  I think it turned out well!  Here she is rocking her new hat.

In my last post I stated that I was worried about doing the decreases properly.  The pattern was a bit confusing, but I managed to figure it out while knitting it.  I think understanding the mock cable pattern and thinking a few rows ahead really helped me with the decreases.  Basically you are merging two mock cables in the decrease locations - once the cables have merged, you perform the decrease stitches in the next mock cable rows.  I contemplated not knitting the ear flaps and putting a pompom on top, but I really liked the idea of strings hanging from the side and wanted a hat that she could wear under her hooded coat.

After knitting the hat, I really wanted a pair of matching mitts.  I don't know what it is about having a matching hat and mitts makes it more complete.  Since there was not pattern available for mitts I thought I would just make it up myself.  I took my knowledge from the mittens I've knit in the past and came up with a pattern.  Here's the basics:

Mittens
Cast on 28 sts

Rounds 1-14: k2,p2 ribbing
Rounds 15-22: knit the same mock cable pattern as the hat

Thumb gusset:
Round 23: k1fb, k1fb, knit mock cable pattern
Round 24: k4, knit mock cable pattern
Round 25: k1fb, k2, k2fb knit mock cable pattern
Round 26: k6, knit mock cable pattern

Transfer 6 sts to a stitch holder, cast on 2 sts, then continue the mock cable pattern until about 1” from the top, then do 3 decreases (spaced out as evenly as possible) every other row until you get near the top, then k2tog until you’re left with 4-5 sts (I forgot how many).

For the thumb, pick up 4 sts from the top of the thumb hole, the continue to knit the 6 sts the off stitch holder. Knit in a round until desired length (I did 12 rows), then k2tog until there are 3 sts.

If you need the mitts bigger, the next size up would have to cast on 32sts (multiples of 4) and for the do 4 decreases spaced evenly.

I absolutely love the mitts with the hat :)  So happy with them!