Little Handwarmers

So after months of unseasonably warm weather (and NO snow), it finally turned cold here in the New York area. Cold enough, at least, for the school to send home a strongly worded 'reminder' to send our children with hats and gloves for recess. Groan. 

Now I love me a snuggly handknit hat, but I am not fond of gloves. Glove put bulky layers of fabric or yarn between my fingers and buttons, zipper pulls, and my phone. So two years ago I made myself a pair of multicolored handwarmers without a pattern. I fudged it, and they turned out well enough for me to wear them almost every day for 2 consecutive winters (see the multicolored cuties in the picture below). Well it's hard to resist cute handwarmers when you are 6 years old, so after many requests I promised S that I would make her a pair. And I did. I started some last September, and finished them...last week. Now I don't necessarily believe that just because I make one of my children something, that I must make all of my children something. However, given that handwarmers look and feel a lot like knight and superhero cuffs, I made a pair for my just about 4 year old boy as well.

This time around I didn't wing it. Instead, I followed the super simple pattern for wristwarmers found in Easy Knits for Little Kids by Catherine Tough. The yarn is all Blue Skye Cotton chosen by the kids at Purl Soho. 

Now once I had finished the handwarmers, I went through our front hall closet and made some of the donate and trash piles I discussed in my last post. When I was done I headed to my sewing room and used leftover fabric from these pillows to make more fabric buckets to hold hats and gloves. Now the kids' winter gear is all accessible in buckets on the floor for easy access as we head out the door for school.