Aye, It's MANLY Wristers

Look out, Sandy!  It's the ax murderer come to get you!  And his wrists are warm, too.

This was not even on my radar screen until 9 p.m. Friday evening.  That's when my daughter wrote me to tell me she had received her Natalya wristlets and her boyfriend went berserk over them.  He wants a pair!  Soonest! 

So what's a mother to do?  Of course she knits.  And I already had the stash.  I had purchased the Mountain Colors 4/8s wool in colorway Granite Peak and the Cascade 220 in Color No. 9332, a sort of grayed blue color, to make him a hat and mittens for Christmas, but Abigail came home excitedly telling me that he had got a new hat just before Christmas that she LOVED on him, so that sort of took away my incentive to make him a hat and mittens.  And who am I fooling?  I ran out of time anyway. 

These are being modeled by the ax murderer otherwise known as my husband, who is a good deal smaller than Abigail's male friend. (but don't tell the ax murderer I said that, coz he thinks he's a real big guy).   These have a lot of stretch in them, though, so I think they'll be JUST RIGHT.

And the colorway is damn hard to photograph, but trust me when I say these are GORGEOUS in person -- but MANLY.  Of course.  All the wonderful browns and greens and black and grays are just not cooperating in the photographs I took (and I took a lot of them), but this one is the best I could get:

So, details.  You want details so you can make your own manly wristers, right?

Well, I modified the ribbed artist's fingerless glove pattern that you can get from the Yarn Barn of Kansas.  You can order it by telephone  or online. The pattern is KP-BD-LRAG. There is no picture of it on their site, so you have to tell them what you're ordering.  (this info courtesy of Eilene.)

My manly mods:  I doubled the light worsted gauge yarn, as I mentioned.  I used size US8 DPNs.  I knit for 3 1/4" before starting the thumb gusset.  I knit 10 rows in the hand before casting off.  I put the thumb stitches on a waste piece of yarn while doing the hand, picked up the stitches later and knit an additional 5 rows before doing a purl castoff.   And I did NOT cast on an additional 6 stitches in the thumb as directed in the pattern.  I did that last time and felt it was too loose.  This might be a mistake for The Big Guy -- the thumb might be too snug.  I hope not.

These are soft, cushy, comfy, warm, and beautiful.  Now back to my regularly scheduled programming.

Comments

[Nathania]

Oh, you clever girl, you!

[Jackie]

What a great mom!! Love the manly wristers. Now I'm feeling a little guilty...Geoff has been after me to make him some for weeks. Maybe you've inspired me. Maybe

[Cassie]

Norma, don't you think your ax murderer might need his own pair of manly wristers? You wouldn't want the ax murderer to feel slighted or unknit for, now would you?

[sandy]

Any ax murderer wearing wonderful wrist warmers cannot be called SMALLER than the boyfriend. He will kill you. He is holding an ax.
And I think that Cassie is right. Hubby's hands look way happy in those pictures and any self respecting ax murderer cannot let their hands get cold, thereby leaving them exposed for the likes of carpal tunnel. It's a hard job! :)
Thanks for the laugh, dearie. When you said you were linking me regarding the wrist warmers, I have to admit to a round of head scratching.
xoxo

[Kim]

Hmm....now those are wrist warmers that I think even my Manly hubby, might wear :-). Nice job!

[Mary Beth]

I'm wondering would my husband wear wrist-warmers? I think not. Unless I called them something else. Like...we need to come up with a manly name....lumberjack grippers? Ideas, anyone?

[Vicki]

They're grrrreat! When I finished the Natalyas for my mom's bday on Friday night, Katie tried 'em on, Maddy tried 'em on, Ali tried 'em on -- they all want a pair (except Maddy (in a pleading voice), "You only need to knit me one." What's a mother to do? You're a better mom than me this week; I ignored them completely, selfishly working on St. Brigid as I'd planned. I'm likely going to pull a Harlot and if they want 'em, they can knit 'em themselves -- and on straight needles, too.

[Annie]

They look great! Very manly.

And, what is it with husbands who *think* they are big guys? My 5'9" husband is the same way. :)

[Jo]

On another list we have been debating the appropriate name for that item half-way between mitten and glove (i.e. the index finger has a separate spot, but he rest are all in the mitten part). They are variously glittens (not too manly), hunter mittens, trigger mittens, and smokers mittens.

So, I suspect you could called these lumberjack mittens without fear of confusion with the other kind. Or perhaps 'axe murderer mittens' for the in-crowd.

I was wondering why no cables? Didn't Abby's have cables? I would think cables could be manly (cf. all those fisherman's sweaters).

[claudia]

Nice. So when Abigail says jump, you say "how high?" Just a trained monkey?

Just sayin'.

;-)

[Tish]

The "glittens" are actually called trigger finger mittens and my husband got them as part of his winter issue items when we were stationed in Alaska. I love the ax-murderer mitts, but you'll probably have to put suede palms on them so they don't slip on the ax handle when you knit a pair for your own ax-man. And if you're ever in Lawrence, KS you should visit the Yarn Barn in person. Great shop (even if it is in KU town- go K-State!). Books, patterns, gorgeous yarn, helpful people, big table to sit and knit, and it's where my husband bought me an Ashford spinning wheel for my birthday when we lived at Ft Leavenworth in '92.

[cari]

Ahem. Excuse me. Norma?

Tag.