Knitter in the Kitchen

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Cash Vero, Color 19
Pattern: Irish Hiking Wrist Warmers
Needles: US #7 / 32 inches for Magic Loop
Modifications: Knit in the round. Many thanks to Marin for teaching me how to do this so very long ago! These are my mods for circular knitting:
Cast on 38 stitches and join the round.
Rows 1-7: K2, P2, K6, P2, K2, P2, K6, P2, K2, P2, K6, P2, K2
Row 8: K2, P2, CF6, P2, K2, P2, CF6, P2, K2, P2, CF6, P2, K2
Knit rounds 1-26 as above.
From rounds 27-38, knit back and forth (i.e., not in the round), maintaining the cable pattern. The odd rows (WS) here will be P2, K2, P6, K2, P2, K2, P6, K2, P2, K2, P6, K2, P2. The even rows (RS) are the same as above.
Re-join to knitting in the round on round 39. Stop after round 45, and knit 7 rounds of 1×1 ribbing.

Almost two years ago, I knit my mother a pair of Irish Hiking Arm Warmers. She mentioned to me recently that the yarn was now pilling quite a bit.  That’s not exactly a surprise — I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and while it’s very soft, it’s not exactly known for holding up well. So I whipped up another pair of fingerless mitts for her.

Yarn: Cascade 220, color 8895
Pattern: I based them on the Tweedy Mittens pattern and essentially knit up to one inch less than the desired length before switching to five rounds of k2p2 ribbing to finish them off.
Needles: US #7 / 32 inches for Magic Loop

Admittedly, these are very plain-looking mitts compared to the Irish Hiking ones, but the plus side is that they have a thumb, right? I am planning to knit my mother a “fancier” pair in the future…either another pair of Irish Hiking Arm Warmers, or maybe Fetching?

Right before Thanksgiving, I got quite productive with my knitting.

Pattern: Top down sock pattern from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn, Mixed Berries, 2 skeins (old size)
Needles: US #1 / 40″ Addi Turbos for Magic Loop

I started these socks a full six months ago. I knit the first sock rather quickly, but the second one languished on the needles for months. The last time I worked on it was over the summer while waiting for a couple of wedding banquets to begin. I had almost given up hope of ever finishing this pair, but I experienced a burst of motivation recently. Sundara Sock Yarn is wonderfully soft and plush, and the colors are saturated. I would definitely knit with it again.

I also knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves.

Pattern: Fetching
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, Color 300610, 1 skein
Needles: Lantern Moon US #4 DPNs
Modifications: Decreased needle size; plain bind off instead of picot bind off

I used smaller needles than directed because my hands are small. Even then, I still think that the handwarmers are a tad big — I would prefer to see the ribbing stretched out a bit more. Perhaps I should cast on less stitches next time. This is a great pattern, and knitting the thumb wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated.

I cast on for a new project and will show it later this week. Let me leave you with a photo of my favorite tree ornament. I hope your holiday season is off to a lovely start!

Back in November, I knit myself a pair of Irish Hiking Arm Warmers. Surprisingly, I have been using them more frequently than I expected. A couple of you wondered whether arm warmers in general were all that useful. I’m sure most of us agree that fingerless gloves alone probably aren’t going to cut it if you’re walking around outside where it snows. But if you live in relatively mild weather, or if your hands are cold just around the house, arm warmers can be very handy. So for Valentine’s Day, I knit Irish Hiking Arm Warmers for my mother and my sister.

I made the purple pair with Elann Peruvian Highland Wool. For Christmas I gave my sister an Irish Hiking Scarf and Hat in the same yarn, so now she has three items in the Irish Hiking series. I made the red pair for my mom using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.

I still have plans to try different arm warmer patterns, although in the future I will only knit them in the round to avoid seaming. These arm warmers are tiny, and I still dreaded seaming them!

I have a confession to make. I used to think that knitted arm warmers were pointless. I mean, if your hands are cold enough to warrant wearing gloves, then why wear fingerless ones? Won’t your fingers still freeze?

Last week Eunny posted about her Fair Isle arm warmers. I thought they looked beautiful, but I still didn’t think that arm warmers were for me. Then on Thanksgiving day I sat in front of my computer at home without the heater on, and when I got up I realized that my hands were cold. Light bulb moment! If I had arm warmers on, then I would have still been able to type and my palms wouldn’t have been so cold. Duh! And…arm warmers might be good for driving, too! My steering wheel is cold in the morning, but I don’t like wearing gloves when holding the wheel…so maybe arm warmers are the solution? Oooooh, new project!

I searched for a simple arm warmer pattern in my books. There is a neat pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but it called for 8″ circular needles. Eight inches? Sixteen-inch circs already seem small, so I can’t imagine using eight-inch ones! I guess I could have used DPNs instead. I also found a cabled arm warmer pattern in Stitch N Bitch Nation. I was about to knit this pattern when I remembered the Irish Hiking Wrist Warmers. Bingo!

I used size 8 needles and almost one skein of Elann’s Peruvian Collection Highland Wool in color #4142 (Orchid Pink). I only had a little bit of yarn left. This yarn is itchy, so maybe next time I will use Cascade 220 or my favorite, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. It was a really quick project — I knit, blocked, and seamed them in 3 days. I have one more skein of Orchid Pink left, so I’m thinking of knitting a pink and brown striped hat to match my arm warmers.

If you know of other cool arm warmer patterns, please send them my way!

On a technical note: can anyone tell me how to use the “future” function on MT to publish posts? I set the status to “future” and then changed the publish date to a future date and time. I was expecting my post to publish at that time but it didn’t…am I missing a step? Thanks in advance!