During winter break I used another yarn store gift certificate to try out a wristwarmer pattern from knitty. The woman in the yarn shop recommended an alpaca blend because, she explained, "everyone says you can get through the pattern with just one skein". I'm glad she was right. This was my first time knitting cables...they always looked so intimidating but I would've tried them earlier if I knew they could be this simple.
One thing I did change in the pattern though...it calls for casting on 45 stitches at the wrist, which was too loose for me. I have decent-sized wrists too. I don't see how 45 would work for anyone with tinier hands. So I casted on 40 stitches, then increased 5 right after finishing the series of cables around the wrist. The mitt fits a lot better this way. Otherwise it was a good pattern. I would like to do it again, only keep going at the top and thumb to make actual mittens.
