These were the very first thing I made using a gauge swatch. They are so easy.
It is just a rectangle seamed up the side, with a little bit left open for the thumb.
Easy!
First I did a little gauge swatch and then decided how wide and long I wanted the
warmer to be.
I had to do a little more math to figure out where to place the stripes and then just
started knitting.
These were for a swap, and I only had my own hand as a measurement, so I made them a
little bit roomy just in case. If I made them for myself, I'd probably make them a wee bit
more snug.
They ended up 8 inches wide (around) and 7 inches long using a gauge of 4 stitches/inch
and 5 rows/inch. Use whatever needles you can to get the gauge you want. I think I used
size 8.
I used worsted weight yarn in five colors (four for the two houses, and one base color). I
wish I could have found a much darker grey for the base color but, alas.
Make 2
Cast on 32 in dark grey (base color).
Work in K1 P1 rib for 5 rows.
Work 8 rows st stitch
Switch to first house main color (green if you're doing Slytherin) and work two rows st
stitch
Switch to first house alt color and work 2 rows st
Switch to first house main color and work 2 rows st
Switch to base color and work 4 rows st
Switch to second house main color and work 2 rows st
Switch to second house alt color and work 2 rows st
Switch to second house main color and work 2 rows st
Switch to base color and work 8 rows st
Work 5 rows k1 p1 ribbing and bind off loosely.
Figure out where you want your thumb to be, then sew up to that point, leave a comfortable space for your thumb and sew up the rest. I did mine between the top ribbing and the second set of stripes. You can decide whichever house you want on top.
If you wanted to do all the houses, like a house rainbow of unity, instead of doing the
middle section of base color, do the 6 rows of main,alt,main colors for the other two
houses.
You'd be adding eight extra rows so they'd be about an inch and a half longer, unless you
subtracted four rows from the top and bottom stockinette rows in base color.
Either way, any way, these are so easy, you can fudge as much as you like.
The important thing is, if you understand the gauge issue, you can control the size of anything, the placement of stripes, etc, which makes designing things a lot easier.
A great place to learn how to neatly sew up seams is knittinghelp.com. This site has been an enormous help to me in my quest to become a master knitter.