Easy knitted arm warmers (double pointed needles)

I'm really enjoying knitting this winter!  I made a pair of arm warmers last year and I wear them a lot.  I don't know what I was thinking making them from white wool, they are getting a bit grubby, so I thought I would make some more and keep the nice ones for "best".  The first pair were quite complicated because they had a thumb, so I wanted to try making a simpler version with just a hole for the thumb instead.  And this time I used black and grey yarn that I got from the market.

I knitted these on four double pointed needles.  I cast on 40 stitches and worked around until I had the length of stripe I wanted.  If you're not sure how many to cast on, my wrist circumference is 16cm, and the widest point is around 20cm, so if you measure your hand, that will give you an idea of how many you need.  Do not be deceived, I always think that the circle of yarn is going to be too small, but are you knit up, you find that it is wider than you realise and you hand (or foot in sock making) does indeed fit through the gap. 

If you don't want stripes, you can keep knitting around, otherwise, add stripes at appropriate length.  These stripes are 2.5 cm wide.  Keep going around until you get to the length that you want.  I knitted from the wrist up to the thumb.  I started working on the thumb hole after the sixth stripe.

I knitted two rows of the seventh stripe, then I cast off five stitches.  I used the knitting that I had already done to estimate the number of stitches, if your thumb is bigger than mine, you may need to cast off more stitches.  Keep knitting around, and when you get back to where you cast off you need to cast one five stitches to finish off the hole (same as a button hole).  This part was kind of awkward on the double pointed needles, in the end I just used the "thumb method" to cast on the five stitches.  The stitches do get a bit mixed up on the wrong needle and have to be rearranged.  I hope you will figure it out when you get there!

In the last stripe I decreased to make the end narrower around my fingers.  I knitted two together every four stitches in the third row of the final stripe.  If you think it going to be too lose at the finger end, you might want to consider some decreases too.  The final step is to weave in all the ends!  I leave the ends long until I'm finished, particularly the first tail, as that is my marker so I know I've finished each row.  All I do is thread the wool on a large blunt needle and hide the end in a few stitches, then trim the end.

And here's the final result!  These are very quick because you can just knit around and around without really following pattern, and you can just keep trying them on until they fit you well.

What do you think?  Do you make up your own knitting patterns?  I'd love to know if you try making these!

How to knit socks on four double pointed needles...