For years I’ve complained about the gap between the bottom of my winter coat and the top of my boots. For years I’ve talked about want winter weight leg warmers. Now that I’ve had the second knee replacement, I’ve got more metal in me than ever, so I decided I couldn’t postpone the leg warmers any longer.

This was an improvised project, but don’t be put off by that. If you are willing to swatch, take a few measurements and do a little math, you too can have a customized set of leg warmers with just a few evening’s work.

Skills needed: cast on, bind off, knit (K), purl (P), ribbing (K2, P2), knit two stitched together (K2tog), slip next two stitches as if to knit, then knit through the back of those two stitches (SSK), knit through front and back loop (KFB), knitting with two colors of yarn, circular knitting (knitting in the round), crocheting - simple chain stitch. If you don not crochet, you can braid yarn together to create the ties, or use a grosgrain ribbon.

Materials: I used two skeins of Briggs and Little’s Fundy Fog and two skeins of Paton’s Classic Wool in a dark purple. While the Briggs and Little yarn is classed as an Aran weight, not worsted, it worked fine for my project (which was a bit of a stash buster). Ideally the colors you choose should complement each other. Designate one as your main color (MC) and the other as your contrast color (CC). If you want to use up some leftover bits, choose colors that will work with a single main color, and be sure to divide up each partial ball so you can make identical leg warmers. You may also want to give some thought to your color changes and repeats in advance.

This is more of a set of instructions to help you make a customized set of leg warmers as opposed to a pattern, but I did share what I did as an example. If your leg measurements are similar to mine, you will have a ready made pattern.