Granny training

Jenny likes to humor me, so she told me that she wanted a pair of hand knitted arm warmers for Christmas. No, arm warmers aren't the latest, bizarre southern California style (well maybe they are, how should I know?)... They're for her to wear cycling on those nippy mornings. We went to a yarn store in downtown Santa Barbara a couple days ago so that she could pick out the yarn. She chose the coolest yarn! It's one of those sock yarns that's variably dyed to knit up to a specific pattern. I've been wanting to use one of these yarns for ages! Yay for Jenny! It knits into large blocks of royal blue, followed by a thin white stripe, and then a wider stripe of mottled white and navy blue. So cool!

I designed the arm warmers myself, so I wasn't sure if they would turn out alright. But I finished the first one last night, just in time to wrap it and put it under the tree. It seems to fit perfectly! So here you go: the directions, in case you want to knit a pair (or maybe just one) of Jenny sized arm warmers:

Jenny sized arm warmers

Gauge: 26 stitches = 4"; 17 rows = 2"

Dimensions: wrist = 5.5"; top = 9.5"; length = 16"

Tubular cast on 36 stitches and continue in k1 p1 rib for 1 inch. Switch to k2 p1 rib, increasing at both ends of every 9th row until full piece measures 15" (62 stitches). End with 1" of k1 p1 ribbing and a tubular cast off. Sew up the seam. Et voila!

The best part is that Jenny decided she wanted to learn to knit too. Jenny, whose favorite pastime is to make fun of me for knitting. She likes to call me granny. She's doing quite well, knitting and purling up a storm. She sees it as a kind of granny training. She can't wait to be old and crotchety and beat people with her cane.