Soft and Cozy Leg Warmers Knitting Pattern
I just love the "lace" pattern on these leg warmers.
The big bug-a-boo with this pattern was that the leg warmers are knit flat & need to be seamed. I believe I have mentioned before (and probably multiple times!) how much I DESPISE seaming ... knitting in particular & I don't much like seaming crochet, either.
So then the big challenge was to figure out how to do the leg warmers on circular needles (magic loop). Heh heh ... where there's a will there's a way! My first attempt (gray) was "ok", but I ended up with a double 'seam/stripe' sort of situation. I was thinking I could live with it ... but hey, now that I had a prototype, it was easy to figure out how to eliminate one of those 'stripes' so the pattern was the same all the way around (claret).
One other huge change I made ... the pattern calls for a 2x2 ribbing, which really limits how many stitches you can use to have your ribbing pattern come out 'right' in the round. If you start with two knit stitches, you have to end with two purl stitches. To accomplish this, the number of stitches has to be divisible by 2 AND the resulting answer ALSO has to be divisible by 2. In the range of stitches I needed for a properly sized leg warmer, this left me with casting on 56 stitches per pattern (56/2=28/2=14) or to reduce the size, the next number I could use would be 48 (48/2=24/2=12).
When I re-did the cuff on the giant Christmas stocking I made for my niece's hubby, I tried a 1x1 ribbing and loved it, so I tried it on the leg warmer .... also a "love", liked the look much better than 2x2 and all I needed was an even number of stitches to cast on - didn't need all the other math to make it work out in the round. This gave me an almost unlimited range of beginning stitches for sizing purposes.
So I got the pattern worked out in the round and switched to 1x1 ribbing and I love the result. I'm still messing around with the bind off - regular is too 'tight' and the one I use for 'stretchy' is too stretchy. I'm trying a modified bind off on the claret pair (I think I'm chalking the gray one up to 'experimentation' & won't make one to match). Once I wear the claret pair a time or two, that will help me on deciding a 'final' bind off.
I do need to make a pair for a friend's Christmas gift. She crochets and appreciates my knitting - she got the first pair of arm warmers I ever knitted and still wears them frequently (she loves fingerless mittens, too). I might go for something in merino wool ... she tends to be cold-natured and likes warm. The arm warmers had some alpaca in them, so they were toasty. :-)