New Pattern: Twisted Ankles!

Want to knit some legwarmers?!

My newest design, Twisted Ankles is squishy, bulky, cabley yumminess – with the cables twisting around each other, then bursting off the garter stitch base to become buttonhole straps, wrapping around the backs of your legs…

There’s a smaller size, which are like ankle warmers (the blue/green and white examples) and a taller size (the orange example) – I was so eager to get this pattern out (I’d planned to release it last week and wasn’t able to), and I decided pretty last minute that I wanted to knit up a taller size example (which I just finished this morning), so the orange version photos are pre-blocking, but you get the idea!

For a pair, you need about a skein (130-160 yards) of bulky yarn (or super bulky, depending on how the brand labels it) and 8 fun buttons of your choice!  See the pattern page, or ravelry, for other details, or to buy the 11 page pdf for $4.99 – it includes full written patterns for each leg, and charts for each (my first cable charts!).

Side note – don’t you love these natural wood+bark buttons I picked out at Twisted?!  I’d planned to choose something cheap, but splurged a little on these because they just looked so fabulous against the orange.  By the way, the orange yarn is Brown Sheep bulky Lanaloft (an awesome bday gift from my buddy Star – who knows me oh-so-well), which I am completely in love with!!  I am so happy that my most favorite local yarn store started carrying Brown Sheep – yumyumyum so woolly and smooth and squishy!  (you may be seeing a project in the worsted soon!)

So yeah, back to the pattern!  I had it test knit by 6 fabulous knitters, and am ever so grateful – a few of them sent along some photos of their finished knits!

Above are Line‘s pair, in Copenhagen!  She used Lammy Yarns Fjord Solid – 135.7 yards (124.1m); US 13 / 9.0 mm needles – and they look so warm with those boots in that snowy Denmark setting!  Thanks for all the great photos, Line!

These are Anna’s – I love the pink cables contrasting against the worn chucks, so comfy looking!  The yarn here is Cascade Eco+ held doubled.

And Amber‘s 2-toned pair – if you run out of yarn like she did, it’ll look cool to just switch to a new color for a chunk – yay asymmetry!  These are Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick in Sky Blue, with size US 13 needles.

Anyone want to see some design process background stuff?

One morning, I brainstormed up the concept of buttoning legwarmers with cables that twist around and become buttonhole straps, while still half-asleep, and sketched it out right away before I forgot.  I knit up the idea and it turned out pretty much exactly like the sketch, but I didn’t like it – it was too small, the cables weren’t nearly squishy enough, and it was basically boring looking, to me…

So I updated the design, with the same basic concept, but fixing those problems, making the cables bigger and squishier, etc.  There were some minor problems with that one, but the final design stayed pretty close – in the photo below, the left one is that second version, and the right one is the final pattern… also, the left one is blocked and the right one is not yet, which, as you can see, makes a difference for sure:

Once I figured out the final pattern, I knit up a pair with some hand-dyed yarn (natural Imperial Stock Ranch Lopi base).  The pattern was final and I loved it, but I couldn’t say the same for my dyed yarn…

So, I took off the buttons and stuck the knit up pieces back into the dye pot, overdyeing them much darker, then sewed the buttons back on and tah dah!

My finished example was complete!  Hope you like them!