Grandpa Had One Leg So My Project Is Finished In His Eyes

Seriously, no kidding. Despite his approval I have actually begun the second leg warmer; these are not for Grandpa.

 This is a really fun and zippy project. There are great places within this pattern design to set your goals of stopping and starting. For instance, start the initial knit & purl ribbing for 10 rows. Boom, you've done the beginning of the leg warmer. Next is the  horseshoe pattern repeat which is made up of 8 rows. So, do 8 rows then take a break and make dinner or something, something like another 8 rows so you have 2 pattern repeats completed. I am the worst but the others in this household have not caught on … 

 After some time, you will have completed all the horseshoe pattern repeats that make you & your upper calf happy and you'll want to change things up. Move on to the simple lace pattern. Again, you can easily set your goals with this 4 row pattern repeat. 

These photos were taken prior to blocking so things are a bit fluffy. In my reality, I'm not going to block these. I've tried the one leg warmer on & I love the length and fit though they will not become part of my personal cold weather wardrobe. 

And the yarn that I've used is Lucca Dot Yarn. It is a thin single made from a batt that I intentionally made (most of the time I'm just releasing frustration and throwing whatever into the tines of my drum carder).  There's wool, silk and copper angelina and I named this 'Celestial Bodies': a lunar yellow-green, lots of blue & purples (my ideal color of the cosmos) and sparkly copper, because it worked.

I've made these leg warmers a few times. One pair I wear a lot, mostly due to the misplacement of the another pair ( I'm pretty sure these others are in the laundry room). The pair that is in my line of site was made from a DK weight yarn blank that I hand dyed. I was attempting a self striping yarn, which I achieved. The resulting colorway was 'schme' but it turns out that the leg warmer design was more triumphant.

Now I want you to have warm leg(s) too!

Knit on….

Lucca Dot Yarn Leg Warmers with Horseshoe Pattern

Notions: Stitch markers

(the following cast on is for a heavy worsted weight yarn or a light fingering weight yarn; the larger needle size is for the heavier weight yarn)

With #9US dpn or US2 9" circulars, CO 40 or 80 sts ; join, being careful not to twist cast-on

row.  

Upper Ribbing:

K1, P1 for 10 rounds.

Horseshoe pattern (multiple of 10 stitches)

Start pattern, placing markers be-
tween each pattern repeat. ( I typically only place 1 stitch marker at the beginning of the round)
Rnds 1 and 3: Knit.
Rnd 2: *Yo, k3, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k3, yo, kl; repeat from *.
Rnd 4: *Kl, yo, k2, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k2, yo, kl, pl; rep from *.
Rnds 5 and 7: *K9, p1; rep from *.
Rnd 6: *K2, yo, kl, sl 1, k2tog, psso, kl, yo, k2, p1; rep from *.
Rnd 8: *K3, yo, sl 1, k2tog, psso, yo, k3, p1; rep from *.
Repeat these 8 rounds 2 times (total
of 3 complete patterns), then knit one round.  (make as many pattern repeats that make you happy and enough to cover the majority of you upper calf)


Decrease the next row after all your Horseshoe pattern repeats are completed so that you have a number of stitches that is divisible by 6.

Straight lace pattern multiple of 6 stitches):
Round 1: k2, p1, yo, k2tog, p1, repeat till end of round 
Round 2: k2, p1, repeat till end of round
Round 3: k2, p1, k2tog, yo, p1, repeat till end of round 
Round 4: k2, p1, repeat till end of round.

Repeat these 4 rounds until you have reached your desired length. 

Finish the lowest portion of the leg warmer with ribbing. I used a K1, P1 pattern for 14 rounds.

Bind off using a regular bind off stitch; no need to make this extra stretchy.