Punky -- my first knitting pattern
Punky
I love self-striping sock yarn, but I always figure if I'm going to knit socks, they ought to be in fancy complicated patterns which never show up well in those yarns. It doesn't help that I live in southern California and almost never wear socks -- so I have a growing pile of neglected sock yarn that has been needing some love. I wanted to make some armwarmers with it, but I searched the internet high and low, and basically every armwarmer pattern ever written is for worsted-weight yarn. So I wrote my own! These are knit in a simple rib pattern which gives them stretch, and the decreases are hidden in the purl parts. They're sized to fit my rather average-sized forearms, which are 6 1/2 inches around at their widest point near the elbow. The stretchiness should accommodate a range of arm sizes, but your mileage may vary!
Materials
- Knitpicks Felici, in the Provence colorway, ~200 yards (a little less than one skein)
- US #2 / 2.75 mm dpns, or size needed to obtain gauge
- optional: Stitch marker
Gauge
36 sts / 52 rows = 4 inches in k3p4 rib, stretched
Pattern Notes
- I recommend the long-tail cast on method here because of its stretchiness. If you begin right at a color-change so that your tail is a different color from the rest of your yarn, you get a neat "rim" effect. You can reproduce this at the top by choosing to BO right at a color change.
- If you use Knitpicks Felici, you can actually track your decreases by counting stripes. I've included both stripe counts and measurements in inches. Inch measurements in directions all reflect unstretched measurements.
Directions
- CO 56 sts using the long-tail cast on method, join, PM (if desired).
- Work in k3, p4 rib for 2" (5 stripes).
- Next round: *k3, p2tog, p2, [k3, p4] 3 times, rep from* once.
- Continue in patt (knitting the knits & purling the purls) for 3/4" (2 stripes).
- Next round: *k3, p3, k3, p2tog, p2, [k3, p4] twice rep from* once. (In other words: move the decs over to next purl section.)
- Continue in patt for 3/4" (2 stripes)
- Continue moving decreases at 3/4" (2 stripe) intervals in this fashion until you are knitting a k3, p2 rib. (If you're counting stripes & not measuring inches, you'll notice that your stripes get a little fatter than the 3/4" recommendation as you go on; that's fine.)
- Continue in k3, p2 rib until piece measures 11" or desired length.
- Make thumbhole: Turn work. Sl first st knitwise and continue in patt. You are now working flat instead of in the round. At end of round, turn work and continue back the other way in patt. Continue 7 rounds in patt this way, then rejoin.
- Continue k3, p2 rib in the round for 3/4" or desired length, BO loosely.
Finishing
- Weave in ends and block if desired.
