Sunday, April 20, 2008

suzy Q's wrist warmers


my dearest friend of all time taught me how to knit and how to do these wristwarmers. i learned how to knit these before i knew how to read a pattern. here is the pattern...i hope it makes sense.


yarn: worsted weight for adult, baby (or sport) for a child.

you need 4.5mm (us size 7) double point needles, cable needle and tapestry needle

ok here goes….

cast on 32 (all onto one needle)

transfer 8 stiches on to your second needle, then from the first needle transfer another 8 stitches onto a 3rd needle. you should have 16 stiches left on your 1st needle. then connect the circle with the following knitting pattern. this will be the base ribbing pattern.

k3, p1 for six rows (or however long you want the base to be)

pearl 2, knit 6 for about 5-6 rows, then you will proceed to do the cable for one row.

CABLE ROUND: P2, slip 3 stS from left needle onto cable needle and hold behind work. knit next 3 sts on L needle. then place the 3 stiches from cable needle back on L needle. then K 3. repeat that for the entire round.

continue these 2 patterns until you feel it’s a good length for a thumb hole. take about a 6 inch piece of different colored yard and do your regular P2, K6 pattern with it but only for 6 stitches (which would be P2, K4) after you have knit the other color yarn in for 6 sts, transfer them back onto the original needle (left side needle). you will then proceed with regular yarn and pattern as if nothing is different.

keep repeating the pattern until it’s long enough, then bind off. (loosely, don’t want to cut off circulation) (try it on your hand to determine)

thumb:

with 1st DP needle slip 6 stitches on the bottom of thumb hole and with 2nds needle, slip 6 sts top of thumb hole. carefully slip out spare yarn.

so you should have 6 stitches on the bottom needle and 6 stitches on the top needle.

1) knit the bottom 6 stitches in ribbing pattern -k2 p1. now you should still have 2 needles occupied and 2 free.

2) with an unoccupied needle, create 3 stitches by picking up 3 loops between the 2 needles w/6. try to pick loops that are not as loose, this will help avoid big “holes” (3 occupied, 1 free)

3) with your free needle, k2 p1 on these 3 new stitches (3 occupied, 1 free)

4) with the occupied needle that just knit those 3 stitches, k2 p1 (3 stitches) on the top needle that has 6 stitches. this will leave 3 stitches on the top needle that have not yet been knit. the other two occupied needles should each have 6 stitches on them. (3 occupied, 1 free)

5) with your free needle, k2 p1 on the 3 stitches on the top needle. (3 occupied - 6 st, 6 st, 3 st, and 1 free)

6) with the free needle, create 3 stitches by picking up 3 loops on the last side of the “square.” (4 occupied)

7) with the top needle with 3 stitches that have already been knit in the ribbing pattern, k2 p1 on the final 3 picked-up stitches. at this point, you should have a total of 18 stitches on 3 needles - 6 st, 6 st, 6 st - with 1 free needle.

8) with the free needle, continue in your ribbing pattern around - k2, p1 - until the thumb is at desired length. then bind off in pattern.

9) repeat on other wristwarmer.

clear as mud?