Wrist Warmers

I am never without a knitting project. I use short, bamboo needles that fit in my purse. I can knit during a meeting, at the coffee house, even at dinner, if it looks like a long evening. I knit in the car, if I don't have to drive.

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.

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Infinity Scarves

 Infinity scarves are so easy to make. Here, I use Sky Ranch Fiber's hand-dyed fingering weight yarn. Midnight is about 50 inches long, and the green, which the designer, Becky Mann calls Autumn (though I prefer Rusty Garden Ornament) is a bit longer. Make a scarf in the yarn and pattern you like up to 55 inches, sew the ends together. Wrap it around your neck once or twice. Seriously.

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The Afghan continues...

 The pillow behind Smooch in this picture inspired the theme of cables for Pam and Joe's Afghan.

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Making an Afghan, #2

 The next color. I pulled out 20 rows of this color after seeing a dropped stitch on the edge.

I keep repeating my Hobby Mantra, "No Hurry."

Note the two boxes of tools and parts for needle work. The peackock box is filled with threads for tiny weaving and the long art box has knitting needles and other knitter's paraphernalia.

Have you read back through this blog? If you, you've seen my Studio in a Basket posts. Studio in a Basket (in my living room) was a joke on me. I filled up that basket with yarn and projects in a few days. Now it's a studio in a basket and a big Laurel Birch bag and two boxes. Not to mention the tiny shrine series, filling up space in the real studio.

How do I have time for this and writing and editing and building shrines? What else should I be doing?

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A Simple Scarf Project

This scarf is a great project for a beginner. It is done with a garter stitch all the way (knit, knit, knit forever) except for a little bit of checkerboard (knit four, purl four) until the right length. Just add on whatever colors you like. I used Merino Extra Superfine washable wool with size 7 needles. I  cast on thirty stitches and made it just long enough to lay comfortably across the chest, by request. It’s a soft, cozy beauty.

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HUGS

Hugs are wrist warmers. Each wrist warmer takes about an hour, depending upon the complexity of the design.

Hugs are simple knitted seven inch squares sewn together. I prefer a Merino Superfine or even Extra Superfine with size 7 needles.

 Here it is: you find your gauge for your needles and yarn and knit a square, with or without a ribbing or pattern. The simplest would be a garter stitch, knitting every row. My preference is a stockinette stitch (Knit a row, purl a row), which makes a smooth and comfortable fit. The edge does curl a bit unless you put in a ribbing, but I kind of like that hobo look.

After you’ve knitted the square, fold it over, right sides together, and sew up the edge, leaving a one and a half inch hole for the thumb about one inch from the top. Turn right side out. Ta. Da. My husband, David, enjoyed a thirty year career as an opera singer and, as a troubadour, has many stories of life on and off the stage. Stay with me, here. This IS about Hugs.

He tells of wearing heavy and padded costumes, some weighing fifteen pounds and the only way to stay cool (since one is often sewn into one’s costume) was to roll back sleeves and hold wrists under icy cold running water. I tried it. Makes sense. You cool the blood there at the wrist and you cool the body.

So,  in the reverse, if you warm the wrists…

Hence, My Hugs.

You’re welcome. Make some Hugs and give them away.

You’ve been Hugged. GB

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Welcome

Welcome to Ginna Gordon 2018
the Diary of a Creative
300-500 Word Articles
Regarding Books, Ideas, Projects, Recipes, Quotes & Pix

My audience:
Boomers, authors, readers, crafters, cooks

My topics:
Books
Writing
GB’s Love Notes
Knitting
Crafts
Food/Recipes
Studios

My 2018 Goals:
Sharing ideas/recipes
Lucky Valley Press

I write about
• scaling down from an 800 square foot space to a basket of knitting and what that feels like after 50 years of large studio spaces wherever I have lived. I share the experience, physically, mentally and spiritually, and find out what other artists do at a certain age when it is no longer appropriate to spin in all directions creating in ten different mediums at once.
• being a writer, about re-writing when I thought the book was finished, about that process, which in the case of Humming, is months and months long: the fallow time of writing, when the characters are taking naps and your mind is filled with the many ways in which you could take the story instead of where you were going.
 • what it feels like to be doing the best work of my lifetime, about working with David, about creating in general, about being a creative, about being created.
• I’ll post recipes, knitting projects, stories, quotes, anecdotes about a client, book covers.
My blog wraps my creativity up in a package and shares it with the world.

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