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 :)