This time of year I get requests for the wrist warmers pattern, a good pocket or purse project. It's really simple, even fore a beginner. My basic pattern is like this: knit a 6.5 inch square in the pattern of your choice, fold it over, sew up the sides, leaving at 1 1/2 inches open for your thumb, beginning about an inch from the top.
If you use a worsted weight yarn, use size 7 needles and start with 42 stitches. Fingering weight yarn is best on size 5 needles, and for these Rusty Garden Ornament items on the right I cast on 38 stitches.These sizes are based on a Woman's Medium. You make them wider by casting on more stitches and longer by knitting more rows.
You can get fancy with patterns and stitches: dots, hearts, cables... The green warmers above are created with the seed stitch, which is all knit, purl, knit, purl: knitting into the purls and purl into the knits.
I started with ribbing on the red and black item on the needles below and increased one stitch at each end before I started with the Midnight Black for a total of 36 stitches. The ribbing adds a nice touch and creates more of a cuff for the wrist.
One of the joys of these little gift items is how little time they take to make, unless you decide to create a Santa Face or get tricky with other colorways. I like to keep it simple so I can knit and watch a movie, talk with friends, listen to an audio book, but not all at once.
