Handwarmers From The Heart

My hands are always cold, unless I’m in the broiling sun gardening and they are covered with gloves. Last fall, in a Martha Stewart Living magazine, I found a solution for my cold hands—a knitted hand warmer. http://www.marthastewart.com/870156/childs-knit-hand-warmer

The project was described as quick and simple. I like quick and simple. So I got out my needles and a skein of yarn and started knitting.

It had been a while since I had knitted, like years, so it took several tries to get the first row after I’d cast on looking decent. Once I’d accomplished that it took some more time to the rest of the stitches even. And naturally, I didn’t have the right size needles or the right weight yarn, so I improvised—something I do a lot. After I finished the first hand warmer and tried it on, it was too loose at the wrist, so I ripped it out and decided to create a cuff using a rib stitch.

 

Did I mention this was supposed to be quick and simple?

After a few dozen nights of knitting false starts, dropped stitches, and ripping out rows while watching television, or rather listening to television, I finally had a hand warmer that satisfied me. Not perfect, mind you, but passable. I put down my knitting needles with a sigh of relief, pulled on my hand warmers, and proudly showed the finished product to my husband.

He looked at them and said, “Those are nice. You know, it gets cold in my office. Can you make me a pair?”

 Naturally, I said, “Yes.”

Then I picked up the needles and cast on what I hoped was the correct amount of stitches to create a product large enough to fit his big hands. I knew I’d have as many false starts and flaws with this pair as I had on the one I’d just finished, but it didn’t matter.  I was grateful my husband saw the beauty in each uneven, bumpy stitch knitted with love and would wear an imperfect product with pride because I had made them for him.

 

Do you have an easy project that wasn’t so easy?