Whit's Knits: Long Striped Hand Warmers, Revisited

We loved last winter's Long Striped Hand Warmers so much that we're still thinking about them this fall! The opportunity that a one row stripe offers to play with color is just irresistible to us. When two colors are in such intense juxtaposition they can start to effect each other in really unexpected and exciting ways, bouncing, shifting and glowing.

For the original version we used the unbelievably beautiful Swan's Island Fingering. We LOVE the Swan's Island and it's still a great choice for this project, beautifully hand dyed, sophisticated and as soft and light as a feather.

We thought that it would be an interesting (and fun!) exercise to see how the Long Striped Hand Warmer's stitch pattern would look if we used Alchemy's Juniper. Also a fingering weight merino, Alchemy's vivid palette is very different in tone from Swan's Island's more subdued colors. We knit up swatches of these six color combinations, each one surprising us in the end!

The above colors are Kai's Goldfish (bottom) and Husk (top), a mixture of spicy tomato red with a soft and mellow camel.

These are Fuchsia and Fool's Gold, a shocking cool pink with a rich curry color.

These are Hush and Fieldstone, two quiet colors, one a dusty lavender and the other a warm mushroom.

These are Turquoise Pool and Cornflower Blue, one a pumped of version of the other.

These are Tea Leaf and Dragon, a pure grass green with a deeply saturated olive.

These are Canary and Fieldstone, a sunny perfect yellow with a hushed warm gray.

It's fun to pick your favorite. We can't agree! Page's favorite is the Kai's Goldfish, Joelle's is the Fuchsia, Molly's is the Canary and Whitney's is the Tea Leaf.  What's yours?

PATTERN NOTES: If you decide to try the Long Striped Hand Warmers with the Juniper you will still only need one skein of each color, but you will probably need to go down a needle size. I used a set of US #1 and a set of US #2 double pointed needles. --Whitney

Comments

[Kimberly]

Oh my. Wow. These are incredibly lovely. I think my favorite pair is the Kai's Goldfish and Husk, with the green and yellow...oh crap and the blue...tied for second. They are all beautiful!

[april]

"These are Hush and Fieldstone, two quiet colors, one a dusty lavender and the other a warm mushroom."


I absolutely love these colors together! i wouldn't have even thought to pair them, but i really love them.

[trish]

super lovely color combos! These are awesome-squared.

[nicelle]

They are all great combinations, but I LOVE the Hush and Fieldstone, and Turquoise Pool and Cornflower Blue. A couple of years ago for Christmas I made fingerless mittens for all of my girlfriends. It was my first time knitting them and I loved doing it. This has definitely sparked my interest again and I may try this striped pattern this year! Thank you!

[Karen]

Just curious as to why you need to drop a needle size for the longer version? Same yarn, same pattern, right? Thanks!

[purl bee]

Hi Karen,
It's a different yarn, which knits at the same gauge as the original yarn, but it has a different spin which means it takes a smaller needle (for most people) to get the correct gauge.
Hope this answers your question, if not let us know.
Thanks for your question!

[Emily Fitzhugh]

yay! It's time to start my knitting again. You captured exactly what I want to make this year. I am going to push myself to branch out from scarfs and make some arm warmers. I think they are sort of seductive in a cozy kind of way. Beautiful blog, beautiful post. xo

[hundreds & thousands print design]

This is a really great pattern, especially as it has such a nicely defined thumb. I tried adding in an extra length ribbing at the top, so I can roll it down or roll it up over my fingers when it's very cold outside:

http://robinmitchellcranfield.blogspot.ca/2012/10/pear-tree-yarn.html

Thank-you for all your great tutorials. I visit your site at least once a week and am still happily working through all the Alchemy temple which I ordered form you.