How to Knit Hand-Warmers

Well first you need to know how to do a regular knit stitch and a purl stitch. If you've never knit before - here's some helpful youtube videos to get you started (Because it's hard to explain stitches in writing):

• Casting On
• Knit Stitch
• Purl Stitch 

It's up to you what kind of yarn you use. For the first pair I'd suggest a slightly fuzzy yarn because it helps hide small mistakes. The yarn in the photos is a alpaca wool/acrylic blend - I like it because it's soft and stretches well. I am using a size 10 needle - I'd suggest between an 8 and 10 for making hand warmers.

For this project you'll need:

• Two regular knitting needles (sizes 8-10)
• Spool of soft yarn
• Yarn needle

The first thing you have to decide is how many stitches across will be big enough to stretch around your hand. It really depends on how bulky your yarn is and how wide the hand you're fitting is. On the yarn sleeve it should have the gauge or thickness of your yarn - mine is a bulky #5. I used 32 stitches across for this project. It will stretch so don't worry if it looks a little small when you're knitting it.

Cast on the amount of stiches you chose (must be an even number). Try to leave a long tail of yarn so that you can use it at the end to sew up the sides. The pattern will be: knit, purl, knit, purl - and so on. You should be starting each row with a knit stitch and ending each with a purl stitch. This will create ribbing so that the warmers will stretch.

Keep going until you think you have the length you want. My hand warmers are about 6" but I have others that extend half way up the arm. They always shrink up a little bit so if you want them to be 6" I'd suggest knitting them until about 7"

When you're at the right length you'll need to bind off - which involves knitting two stitches and pulling the first stitch over the second one and off the needle. You'll want to make loose stitches when you bind off so that the bottom of the hand warmers aren't too tight.

Now, take the tail you left at the top of the project when you casted on and string it through your yarn needle (this will be the top of the warmers). Fold the project in half and start sewing the two sides together. I usually use a whip stitch (over in a circular motion).Try to sew as close to the edges as possible.

Stop about an inch and a half down, this is where the gap for your thumb begins. Sew only on one side downward leaving a gap about 2" long. After the gap sew both sides together again down to the bottom. End with the needle through the back side, turn inside out, make a knot (or 2), then cut off the excess yarn.Try it on to make sure there's no gaps or holes - if there are you can use your yarn needle to close them up. And you're done!