Simple Knitted Legwarmers pattern - still time to make before Christmas

Simple, knit legwarmers

The last few days have been FREEZING, and I mean negative numbers. The weather is tempting me to add another project to my already long Holiday project list.

Legwarmers!

I can bundle up all I want on top, but if all I have on the legs are jeans, I'm still going to be pretty dang cold. I could wear tights underneath my jeans, but who wants to do that?

So, I thought, I should just make really long legwarmers, like mid-thigh length legwarmers. Doesn't that sound wonderful! They'll be like blankets for the legs!

I made the legwarmers in the image above back in 2009 and am thinking I'll use the same, no-fuss pattern. To update them for the thigh length legwarmers, I'm going to use the same design and just keep stitching until they're the right length. I'll take the measurement around the largest part of my thigh instead of calf to start. That may be all I do. However, if the legwarmer seems too big once I get lower on the leg, I may start decreasing a stitch or two every now and then to make the bottoms slimmer. But who knows, it might be just right with the bottoms being big. I'll decide as I go, and let you know what happens.

Here is the pattern for the original legwarmers from the photo above.

Simple Legwarmers:

I used black, sport weight, blue sky alpaca yarn, but you can use whatever yarn you'd like. Update: use the needle size that's recommended for the yarn. I don't know what the original size of needle I used to make these back in 2009.

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.

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