If You Can Knit a Hat

You can knit these

Concept:

I chapped my shins last week while waiting for the bus in subzero weather.  I decided I needed legwarmers and googled around for a simple and free pattern.  Let me just say this.  There's altogether too much cabling and eyelets and other filigree lace patterns going on out there.  I understand there are people who are willing to lose a leg for fashion, but that's not me.

That said, there are some really fine fair isle leg warmers out there that have the same advantage as Norwegian Knitting in that there are two strands of yarn at a time that trade places front and back to create a pattern.  And yes, I have mittens knitted that way that prove it's excellent winter wear.  But I'll be wearing these over leggings and I want them now.

Couldn't find a pattern I liked for free, so I just started knitting.

I rooted around in my stash and found a couple of skeins of Lion Brand Wool Yarn in the Brown Heather color.  I had picked it up for a scarf, but once I got it home I realized it was much too rough for next to the skin.  It's not too rough to put over leggings though.

Gauge:

I cast on about 30 stitches and knit stockinette, on size 8 needles for about 3-1/2 to 4 inches.  

Gauge for me was 4 stitches per inch, 5 rows per inch.  Now I did take gauge from a flat piece and I am knitting these in the round, so that's a no-no, but it works for me.  I'm using a 40" skacel addi Turbo magic-loop needle so I could be knitting both legwarmers at once, but I decided one disaster at a time was a better idea.

Measure:

Decide how high up your leg you want the top of the legwarmer to sit and get circumference.  I chose just above my knee, and since it's a chubby thigh, I got 17" so I added ease of 1/4 inch.  I want the leggings to stay up, but not cut off the blood flow.  That means positive ease.  

Thigh above knee = 17.25" x 4 = 69

I'd already decided that I wanted to use a knit-on cast on and a rib pattern that would also be easy to decrease slowly.  Knit 2, Perl 2 seemed like a good idea.  It's a little more elastic than K1P1, and not as floppy as k3p3.  So, the basic ribbing number is 4 stitches, k2p2. While 68 is divisible by 4, it makes the band tighter.  So I changed it to 72 st or 18 groups of 4.

Widest part of calf = 15" x 4 = 60 stitches.  That's good right there, but I'm also going to need to decrease a bit more from the thigh size to the calf size in order to make the legwarmer able to hold itself up with more than just the thigh ribbing.   That means some negative ease. I hate perling so that's where the decrease is going to happen. And I'll decrease incrementally once the knee ribbing is done.  

72*.75=54, 3X18=54 ... so we have a 6 stitch negative ease.

To decrease slowly, I decided to perl 2 together one time per round. That means, the first trough of P2 will be P2tog, and I will knit the rest of the row K2P2.  Next row is K2P1, K2P2tog, K2P2 ... and so on. 

I used two plastic safety pins to mark my place.  The first was a general pin to mark the side I was decreasing on and the second to mark the latest P2tog.  The decreases then spiraled down from the knee to the calf.

From then on it's K2P1 down to the ankle or at least a couple of inches below the boot top.

In knitspeak that would be..

• Get gauge.
• Measure thigh above knee cap.
• Cast On  (Thigh Circumference x Gauge) + enough stitches to be divisible by 4.  K2P2 for 2.25" (or the space from your starting point to the top of your kneecap).
• Begin decrease:

1. K2 P2tog, K2P2 around.
2. K2P1, K2P2tog, K2P2 around.
3. K2P1, K2P1, K2P2tog, K2P2 around

• Continue row 3, perling 2 together, one at a time, until all but the last three K2P2 groups are worked.
• Try it on.  

1. If the legging is a bit loose continue the decrease rounds.
2. If the legging is already just fine, mark off the k2p2 group with stitch markers, and wait to work those decreases until after the curve of the calf.
3. If the legging is too tight, frog up another couple of rows and mark off the ribbing groups that you will hold at k2p2 until you've past the widest part of your calf.

• Continue K2P1 until the legwarmer is the length you want.  Bind off using E.Zimmerman's sewn bindoff to make that ribbing flexible.

I'm hoping to get both done before I have stand in the snow, shivering, waiting for that bus.  Will post the picture of legwarmers in action when that happens.