Inclination Wrist Warmers

I love fingerless gloves and wrist warmers. And I also love to try out new construction ideas. For these I had to fail three times before I got the shaping right. But it was worth it - I really like them.

These mitts are knitted all in garter stitch - even though the construction may look a bit complicated in the beginning it will come together nicely in the end. Because of the stripey pattern, you only need about 15 grams of each color - so these are great to use leftovers or some nice mini skeins.


This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.








Materials

• a total of about 25 grams of fingering weight yarn in two colors - I used about 15 grams of the main color (MC, dark purple in the pictures) and about 10 grams of the contrast color (CC, light purple and white in the pictures)
• 3mm knitting needles (plus a third needle of about that size)
• a crochet hook (for the provisional CO)
• scrap yarn (for the provisional CO)
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends.

Techniques 

• Provisonal CO: My preferred method of a provisional cast-on is the crochet provisional CO – as shown in this YouTube Video by lucyneatby
• Grafting in stockinette stitch (aka Kitchener stitch): As shown for example in this YouTube video by WEBS - America's Yarn Store 
• Other Grafting Stitches: Joni Coniglio has written a series on grafting (“5 Grafting Myths”) on the knitting daily blog. All her post can be found here: http://www.knittingdaily.com/author/joni-coniglio/  ).
  The techniques used here, can be found in this blog post.
• Short Rows with Wrap and Turn (w+t): In this pattern short rows are used to shape the mitt, i.e. to make it a bit wider at the bottom edge. The pattern is written with "wrap and turn"-short rows (see this YouTube Video by Very Pink Knits and this YouTube Video to show how to pick up wraps on the purl side by knitfreedom.com) - however, any method that you like works as well.

Gauge and Measurements
In garter stitch 24 rows (12 garter stitch ridges) measured 5 cm in height and 11 stitches were 5 cm wide. The finished mitts as knitted by me measure 17 cm in height. They measure 18 cm in circumference at the lower edge - and about 17 cm in circumference at the upper edge.
The pattern is written in a way to adapt to the circumference of your wrists - so you should know this measurement.

General Construction

These mitts are constructed similar to the Trikonasana yoga socks. Where for the Trikonasana yoga socks I could "cheat" by turning the second one inside out, for these I had to construct the second one differently. (Because of the stripes, this pattern has a clear RS and WS distinction.)

The schematic shows how the different parts make up the complete wrist warmers. The only difference between the two is that the first inclines to the left and the second one inclines to the right.

The wrist warmers are started with the piece below the thumb (1st part) - here some short rows are used for shaping purposed.

Then the stitches above the thumb are added with a new provisional CO and the main part (2nd part in the schematic is knitted). This part ends with a number of stitches being put on a stitch holder or piece of scrap yarn.

A small 3rd part (the piece above the thumb) ends with grafting the remaining stitches together with the second provisional CO. Then the stitches on the stitch holder are grafted together with the stitches from the first provisional CO.


Instructions

First Wrist Warmer

1st Part or Piece under the thumb
Provisionally CO 38 stitches - leaving a tail long enough to graft 38 stitches


In MC
R0: k all sts (your piece should look now as in photo 1)
R1 (RS): ssk, k to last st, kfb
R2 (WS): sl1 wyib, k to last st, sl1 wyif
R3, R4: ssk, k12, w+t, k to last st, sl1 wyif
R5, R6: ssk, k18, w+t, k to last st, sl1 wyif
R7 = R1
R8, R9: sl1 wyib, k4, w+t, k to last st, kfb
R10, R11: sl1, wyib, k6, w+t, k to last st, kfb
R12 = R2
R13, R14 = R5, R6
R15, R16 = R3, R4
R17 = R1
R18, R19 = R8, R9
R20, R21 = R10, R11

2nd Part or Main Part
On the third needle provisionally CO 19 stitches with scrap yarn
Still with MC start the next row as R1 (ssk, k to last st, kfb) but once you've reached the end, then knit the 19 newly cast on stitches
Knit R2 (sl1 wyib, k to last st, sl1 wyif)

Now let's start with the stripey pattern

R3 (MC) = R1
R4 (MC) = R2
R5 (CC) = R1
R6 (CC) = R2
R7 (CC) = R1
R8 (CC) = R2

Repeat rows R3 to R8 until the piece is wide enough to fit around your wrist (at the diagonal). For me this was the case after a total of 7 stripes.

Then continue in MC with one R1, one R2 and another R1.
Next row (knitted like a 19-stitch wide row2): sl1 wyib, k17, sl1 wyif - and put the remaining stitches (there should be 38 stitches left) on a stitch holder or a piece of scrap yarn. Turn work.

3rd Part or Part over the thumb and grafting
R1: ssk, k to last st, kfb
R2: sl1 wyib, k to last st, sl1 wyif
Repeats R1 and R2 until the upper diagonal fits around your fingers, for me this was the case after a total 6 rows (or 3 garter stitch ridges).
Then knit another R1.

Cut your yarn leaving a tail long enough to graft the seam. Open the stitches from the second provisional CO and catch them on a knitting needle. Hold the two needles together right sides out and with a tapestry needle graft in garter stitch. (If you have done grafting before, here's the short hand for grafting garter stitch: front needle: k slip, p leave; back needle: k slip p leave - if you haven't done this before, please watch the video I have linked above)

Now open the stitches from the first provisional CO and catch them on a knitting needle, put the stitches from the stitch holder or scrap yarn on another needle. Thread the yarn tail you left at the beginning in a tapestry needle. Hold the pieces together right sides out and graft them in garter stitch, but with aiming to get the purl ridge in front and the knit valley on the back needle (please refer to Joni Coniglio's blog post for the different kinds of grafting stitches), this means that for the first stitch insert the tapestry needle knitwise and pull the yarn through on both needles but do not slip the stitches from the needles. Then repeat the following steps to the end of the row:

• Front needle: insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch purlwise and slip the stitch off the needle, now insert the tapestry needly knitwise into the next stitch and leave it on the needle.
• Do the same on the back needle, i.e. insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch purlwise and slip the stitch off the needle, now insert the tapestry needly knitwise into the next stitch and leave it on the needle.

(Or in short: front needle: p slip, k leave; back needle: p slip, k leave).

Weave in ends.


Second Wrist Warmer


As explained in the construction section, if you want them to be symmetrical (ie. one being the mirror image of the other) you have to knit the 2nd one differently.

The picture on the right shows both wrist warmers just before grafting. The first one on the top and the second one below.

Basically all you have to do is change all rows 1 to start with the increase (kfb instead of ssk for the first wrist warmer) and end with the decrease (k2tog instead of the kfb).

So for the second wrist warmer rows 1 and 2 are knitted as follows:

R1 (RS): kfb, k to last 2 sts, k2tog
R2 (WS): sl1 wyif, k to last st, sl1 wyif

This also includes the short rows of part 1, where for the 2nd wrist warmer the first st of an RS row is an increase (kfb) and the last stitch of an RS row is decrease - in both cases if there is such a stitch.

Everything else (the short rows, the provisional CO, the stripes etc.) is just the same as for the first mitt.

Yarn
I bought this yarn at Wollefestival 2015 in Cologne. These wrist warmers are made from two miniskeins from "Frau wo aus po" whose beautifully dyed yarns made me buy too much :) - anyway, here's a link to her blog and to her blogshop.