It is important to remember not to stress about your knitting!  I’ve heard people say a million times that knitting’s too hard, or they don’t have the patience, or they’ll mess it up…any number of things why someone wouldn’t want to knit. In my humble opinion, knitting is about one of the easiest crafty things you can do. You grab two sticks and a ball of string, loop said string around the sticks in a certain pattern, and a few times later you’re making fabric. How cool is that? And (this is the best part) if you mess up you just pull out the stitches until before the mistake, then you do it over again. You might mess up – you might mess up a lot – but it is almost impossible to mess up your knitting beyond repair. Remember that, and remember that knitting is supposed to be relaxing. If you’re nervous about this, don’t be. Take a deep breath and relax.

Yarn Weight/Needle Size: The weight of yarn you use and the size needles you use are entirely up to you. I personally use size nine needles and two strands of “worsted” (medium) weight yarn. (By two strands, I mean exactly what it sounds like: two strands of yarn held together as one.) Other costumers use two strands of worsted weight yarn and size thirteen needles. Still others use two strands of DK (double-knitting, a lighter weight) yarn and size 6 needles. Smaller needles and thinner yarn will produce smaller stitches, larger needles and thicker yarn will produce larger stitches.

 

Visit the Knit vs Purl page for details on how to complete each stitch!

Crochet Hook
Large-eye Yarn Needle
Knitting Needles
Scissors
Stitch Markers
Yarn (as few or as many colors as desired)

Step 1: Cast on the starting number of stitches you figured out in step 7 of Creating A Pattern.

Step 2:  Knit in knit-2 purl-2 ribbing for 1".

Step 3:  Start your increases if you need to (for a legwarmer), or else just keep knitting straight (if you’re opting for the “tube” type of legwarmer, or for an armwarmer). Work in whatever color pattern you like. In this instance, I’m using intarsia to put spots in the knitting – but you can do that, or stripes, or just a general mish-mash of colors.

Step 4: Once you’re past the largest part of your leg (if this is a legwarmer), or once your leg/arm starts to get thinner, begin to decrease – if that’s your plan. Keep up that color pattern!

Step 5:  Once your warmer is one inch less long than you want it (probably just underneath the bone that sticks out on your ankle, or the skinniest part of your wrist), knit 1 more inch of knit-2 purl-2 ribbing.

Step 6 (arm warmers):  Bind off in the pattern you’re knitting in.

Step 6.1 (leg warmers):  Determine the middle of your knitting, and mark out the middle 10 or so stitches with stitch markers or safety pins or something similar. I used bits of dark blue thread tied before and after the middle 12 stitches. These stitches in between the markers will make a “beak” over your foot, to cover your shoe. If your foot is narrower or wider, mark out fewer or more stitches.

Step 6.2 (legwarmers): Bind off all of the stitches, except for the ones in the middle. Knit through those, and then bind off the rest.

Step 6.3 (legwarmers): Knit 2-4 rows even (depending on the length of your foot – do you need the beak to be longer or shorter?).

Step 6.4 (legwarmers): Begin decreases. You’ll be making a triangle. Knit 1 stitch at the beginning of the row, knit two together, knit to the end of the row.

Step 6.5 (legwarmers): Knit 1 stitch, knit 2 together, knit to the end of the row. Continue like this until you only have one stitch on your needles.

Step 6.6 (legwarmers): Snip off the end of your yarn and thread it through the one stitch. Pull it tight.

Step 7: Yes…it’s time to weave in all those loose ends you’ve accumulated using all your lovely colors! You have two options: one, since the warmer will in the end be a closed tube, you need only weave in the very last loose end on the beak. All others you can just trim and leave inside the warmer. If you’re obsessive over these things like me, you can weave in all the ends. Use a crochet hook to weave them in.

Step 8: Sew up the warmer. I prefer the mattress stitch (instructions can be found in a link at the bottom of this page), but you can use any you prefer. I’m using white on a black warmer so you can see what I’m doing, but you can use a matching color or any color you like. Mattress stitch is meant to be invisible, but it takes some practice to get it to look correct!

Step 9 (arm warmers): Knit yourself a strip about ½ inch by 4 inches. Cast on three stitches and knit away until the strip is long enough (don’t worry about knit-a-row purl-a-row, just knitting is fine). I generally use one strand of yarn and smaller needles for this, but it’s not necessary. 

Step 9.1 (arm warmers): Sew this into your armwarmers using the whipstitch – it will be your thumb loop.

Step 10: Sew snaps in the warmer at the top of your knitting on the sides (see picture) and sew the adjacent piece to the unitard to hold the warmers up. You can also use elastic to hold them up and forgo the snaps. For legwarmers attach a snap to your “beak” and the back of your heel, and the corresponding piece of the snaps on the shoe. (I show where to place them on the shoe in these pictures – just where my finger is.)

Holding two different-colored strands of yarn together can create beautiful variegated results in your knitting.

Don’t be afraid to mix textures and colors! The more different kinds and colors of yarn you have in your knitting, the more character and depth it has.

Still not sure you know how to knit?  Try the following resources!

#1) You can use intarsia to create shapes in your knitting like diamonds and spots. It’s a lot more simple than it sounds, trust me. It took me about four years of knitting before I finally worked up the courage to try this – and then I basically taught myself in five minutes. Twenty rows later, I had a diamond in my knitting. It’s not scary at all, just tie on a new color where you want it in the middle of a row, knit with it for a few stitches, and when you’re done tie on another strand of the main color.

#2) You can create stripes easily as well. Simply knit with a different color for as many rows as you want your stripe to be. When you want to change colors again, just start the next row with the different color.

#3) You can use the duplicate in areas where you don’t want to knit the spot in. It’s a method of embroidering a picture onto your knitting. This is best suited for knit-side-out warmers. You can find a better example at the link listed below.

#4) You can use embroidery for spots that look like someone pretty much went at it with needle and yarn.  It’s a way to add color easily and gives your warmers an interesting texture. To achieve this result, just make many small stitches all over the area you want to fill in a spot. Just be sure not to pull too tightly, or you may pull your knitting too tight (and thus too small)!