Evolution of a Knitter

Knit two.  Purl two.  Knit two.  Purl two.  What's that?  Oh, just the subconscious musings of a domestic diva in the making.  I have leg warmers in my crosshairs, and they're proving a more difficult target than those old square dishrags.  Forget knitting with two needles.  I've been suckered into using four.  If you'll remember, in "Confession 27", I detailed my particular weaknesses when it comes to peer pressure.  This particular weakness has produced my latest knitting project.

This time, it was SG.  If you know SG, you know that she's not the type to exert unrelenting merciless peer pressure.  She didn't have to.  As soon as I saw her knitting away on those leg warmers, I knew I had to have some.  My forays into knitting began as a little country girl making doll blankets under the tutelage of my patient domestic diva mother.  This grew from doll blankets into dishrags and from dishrags into scarves and from scarves into… well, nothing until now. 

My love affair with leg warmers began with my days as a dancer.  Back in the day, in our little Texas studio, there was no dancer so great as Jordan.  She was the best in  the place.  Her splits were split like no one else's, her toes pointed like no one's could, and she never had a hair out of place.  Naturally, she was out of my orbit in awesomeness, and I knew that.  I stayed perched on my bottom rung of the ballerina social ladder, content to watch she and the other senior girls do arabesques and pirouettes more fluidly than I could potta bouree.  (Pardon my French.) 

The point of that story is Jordan the best-in-the-west ballerina wore leg warmers.  They've been cool to me ever since.  When SG's subconscious peer pressure of awesomeness collided with my memories of my dance heroes, I was sunk.  Sign me up, I'm here to knit. 

In case you haven't noticed, knitting is cool again.  Last time knitting was cool, Yankee Doodle was on Billboard's Top 100, and even then, it was more of a necessity than a hip hobby.  It has made a few come backs, at least I think it did some time before I was born, judging by the presence of home made sweaters and afghans and potholders lying around.  This time, however, knitting is making fashion statements and also culture statements.  Leg warmers?  Heck to the yes, I'm going to wear them with my terra cotta jeans.  A 23 year old knitting?  Heck to the yes.  Home ec is so cool these days. 

I know, you want to know about the progress of my leg warmers.  Let me tell you, it's slow going, especially when it's competing with The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart.  It's a kid book I picked up at the library on a whim and it's proving most engaging.  I highly recommend it for people aged 10-23, plus teachers and anyone else who likes kid books.  All that to say, I have about six inches done on my first leg warmer. 

Here's the progress so far, plus a picture of my latest adventure in children's literature, which is by far more wonderful than the last novel I read.  (Love in the Time of Cholera, don't read it.  It's horrid.  That is to say, good writing, horrid plot.)

I've become so inspired with this knitting project, though it's slow as molasses on a January morning.  The possibilities are only limited by my time, money and patience.  I guess that makes them rather limited, but they do exist.  Knitting and purling argyle?  Beanies?  Infinity scarves on a round needle?  What?!  For now I'm content to knit two, purl two.  I'll keep you posted on how the fantastic legwarmers in cream are coming.  I've rewritten the pattern below from SG's knitting book with my own notes and some room for creative license. 

Much love,

Little Miss Sunshine

Leg Warmers

I don't know what size needles.  I'm using size 9 and they're making small stitches. 

If you want big stitches, use bigger needles.  You can either use a small (short) pair of connected round needles, or you can use four needles of the same size with points at both ends.  I recommend round needles.  It's faster.

I bought two balls of yarn that were 100 grams each.  I think it'll be plenty for one leg warmer each.

-Cast on 43 stitches, leaving a 6 inch tail.  (If you're casting on using the four needles, cast on 14, 14, 15 and use the last needle to knit with.)

-Take the first stitch you cast on and knit it together with the last stitch you cast on.  Now you have 42 stitches.

-Knit to the end of the row.

+Note: it's important to be able to mark your rows in some way, so you can use a stitch marker, or just the 6 inch tail as a rough guide.

-After you've knit all the stitches once, it's time to start the ribbing (the part at the bottom of the picture). 

-Here we come to creative options.  You can choose how big you want the ribbing to be.  The original pattern called for knit one, purl one.  I wanted to try something different, so I did knit two, purl two. 

-Whatever you choose, just make sure it's a factor of 42 (1, 2, 3, 6, etc.).

-Knit two, purl two until your ribbing is 2 1/2 inches, or as long as you want it.  They should go from your ankles to the bottom of your knee cap and kind of bunch up.

+Note: your ribbing should look like some version of the ribbing above.  If it doesn't, as mine didn't the first four times I tried, it just means your rows aren't lining up vertically.  Pay close attention to what kind of stitch was done in the last row.

-All the knits should line up, and the purls too. 

-Once you finish the ribbing, knit a normal stitch until they are as long as you want.  Leave room for a ribbing at the bottom, done in the same way as the top.  The main space of the leg warmer is your artistic canvas.  You can experiment with knit/purl or knit two/yarn over patterns to your knitting heart's content.

-After you finish the bottom ribbing, knit a row using the regular stitch and then cast off. 

Bam.  Leg warmers.  Congrats, you're now a knitter.