These are a great way of keeping extra warm in winter! Use a gorgeous 100 per cent alpaca yarn, which is super-soft and comes in beautiful colors.
Yarn
Debbie Bliss Aymara (100% alpaca) light worsted (DK) yarn, approx. 109yd (100m) per 1.oz (50g) hank
1 hank each of shades:
13 Amethyst (purple) (A)
14 Moonstone (lilac) (B)
12 Ruby (red) (C)
11 Quartz (pink) (D)
10 Copper (orange) (E)
09 Gold (yellow) (F)
15 Sky (pale blue) (G)
16 Storm (dark blue) (H)
08 Moss (olive green) (I)
Needles and equipment
US size 4 (3.5mm) double-pointed needles
Yarn sewing needle
Gauge (tension)
24 sts x 32 rows over 4in. (10cm) square, working garter st using US size 4 (3.5mm) needles.
Finished size
Approx. length 13 ½ in. (34cm)
Abbreviations
approx. approximately
k knit
st(s) stitches
For the arm warmers (make 2)
Using A, cast on 40 sts, divide equally over three needles and join into a ring, taking care not to twist sts.
K 14 rows in A.
K 12 rows (approx. 1óin./4cm) in each color, in sequence B, C, D, E, F,
G, H.
K 14 rows in I.
Bind (cast) off.
Making up and finishing
Sew in ends and block to size.
Note
Use the jogless stripes method when joining new colour (see below).
Jogless stripes
A “jog” is created when knitting from one round to the next when the stitches of each round don’t stay lined up. As you knit up any item in the round using circular needles, you will notice that if you change colors at the beginning of a new round the color and/or pattern tends to fall out of alignment at that point. This is because when you knit in the round you are knitting a spiral, so the beginning and end of a round never perfectly meet. To avoid this problem on stripe/solid sections, work the jogless stripe technique as follows:
Join in the new color in the first stitch at the beginning of a round and place a stitch marker. Finish knitting in the round to the end as instructed.
Commence the next round by picking up the stitch below the first stitch of the previous round (old color), slip the picked-up stitch onto the left-hand needle, and knit together the slipped stitch and the first stitch of the next round.
For more colourful knitting projects, check out Rainbow Knits by Nicki Trench.