Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Slipstream Cuffs

Mmm. Cables.

Pattern: My own, incorporating staghorn cables and a slipped stitch cable.
Yarn: Spritely Goods fingering weight merino-nylon blend, for evaluation
Needles: US 1

Just what are they? Well, it's basically a pair of footless socks....or short arm warmers that go from wrist to just shy of my elbow (yes, in the photo above, one of those is on my leg). They only work as arm warmers when freshly off the needles or when freshly blocked - they get rather short and squat when I wear em on my legs. I designed these primarily to go with my boots (the arm warmer part was pure serendipity):

The boots in question have a bad bad habit of chewing on my leg in one spot near the top of the zipper - I haven't found anything rough on the inside of the boot, however every single time I wear these boots, I get matching raw rub marks on my shins where the boots seem to rub.

My reasoning for knitting these without feet is because I can wear thin commercial socks with them and not have to launder the handknit part after each wearing. Call me lazy ;) I wore these out East, and I'm happy to report my legs are rub-mark-free and the yarn appears to hold up quite nicely to being stuffed into a boot.