Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Just Do It

I've wanted to knit myself legwarmers for a couple of years. Mainly the ones on the back of Last Minute Knitted Gifts, because apparently I spend all my time standing carefully on chairs, so it doesn't matter if my legwarmers come down almost to my toes.

See?



Anyway, I didn't make them, because I'd convinced myself that the 1x1 ribs would take forever, and that if I ever finished the darn things I'd end up wearing them constantly, despite my theory that athletic calves and legwarmers don't mix.

Then all of a sudden Friday night, I couldn't stand it any more. My calves were cold, darn it, and legwarmers would keep them warm. If my legwarmer/athletic calf theory turned out to be correct, I'd wear them under pants and boots so they wouldn't show. So there.

The ribs took the opposite of forever. I cast on before dinner on Friday, finished the first one Saturday morning, wore it (under jeans) all day while I knit the second one, and had a pair by bedtime Saturday. And now my calves are warm.





I used a twisted rib instead of a regular rib, since my regular 1x1 rib tends to be loose and weird. The original pattern calls for Cascade 220 and Kidsilk Haze (I think), but I used my my own handspun, held double. The wool came from two sheep of slightly different colors (Sarah and Coco, according to the label)--I spun up one ply from each sheep, then plied them together. And I went up a needle size partway through, to accommodate my calves.

(Note: rabbits--even mysterious ghost rabbits--aren't the panacea for bad legwarmer photos that you might have thought they were.)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I have often wondered about a) wearing legwarmers and b)making them (thanks to that book) - glad to know it all worked out well and knit up quickly. I may have to give those a shot!

Peaceful Knitter said...

Awesome.
Was your naked calf jealous while the other one was warm and snuggly?

gale (she shoots sheep shots) said...

I like the last photo almost as much as I like those legwarmers. A hairy bunny is always a good prop.