No work on Christmas = Legwarmers

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I was getting really burned out before Christmas, so once I finished up a couple of lingering freelance jobs, I called it quits for doing any work on Christmas and the couple of days surrounding it. That was the BEST thing I did in a LONG time! I must've watched about 12 movies, cleaned up the house for a fresh new year start, and sat on the couch and knit on random projects that were completely non-work related. I knit several washcloths out of yarn that I made from a few old t-shirts, and I knit the little black legwarmers in the above pic. I wanted to make some legwarmers for a while, there have been so many cute ones on Etsy lately and my legs have been FREEZING every time I go out. I also wanted an excuse to learn how to continental knit (thanks mom! link) and wanted to get more comfortable using double pointed needles. All I have to say is that continental knitting has changed my knitting life! Once you get going it's just so fast and relaxing. I'm in love! Any beginner or "throwing" knitter should really check out this vid. It really broke things down for me. Below I've written up my directions for the legwarmers in case anyone else wanted to make some. Happy knitting!

Simple Legwarmers:

I used black, sport weight, blue sky alpaca yarn, but you can use whatever yarn you'd like.

First you'll need to make a quick gauge: Cast on 10 stitches in stockinette stitch (knit a row, purl a row) for 10 rows total. Measure how many horizontal stitches in an inch. Then measure the number of inches around the largest part of you calf. Use those two numbers to figure out how many stitches you'll need to go around your calf.

Figure out the number of stitches it takes to go around your calf (instructions above) and cast on the closest multiple of 4 to that number. For my legwarmers I cast on 36 stitches.

work in the round

(k2, p2) around for 15 rows

k 50 rows (or to your desired length)

(k2, p2) around for 15 rows

bind off loosely.

There you go. Super easy, no frills, but still cute.