Jazz Hands!

 Happy release day to me, and to you!  Hannah, the winner of the Jazz Hands test-knitting give-away, finished up and shipped me her gorgeous arm-warmer-fingerless-mittens and it's taking every ounce of self-control I have to mail them back to her.  (The colorway of this yarn is one of my personal faves.  I might have to buy another skein and duplicate these for myself!)  Anyway, I had a little photoshoot with my daughter behind the camera (pretty great pics for a 9-year-old, eh?) and I've got my act together just in time to release this as a holiday goodie to all of the wonderful knitters who support me by reading my blog, following me on facebook, and spreading the news of my patterns through word-of-mouth, comments/sharing posts on Facebook, or sharing finished projects on Ravelry!  You wonderful people are the reason more people are finding my designs, and the more people that do, the more likely I'll be able to continue doing this creative work that I love.  You are the best!

So please, check out the fun zig-zag "lightning bolts" that shoot down the sides of these arms, and the ribbed hand that has a lot of stretch to accommodate a range of hand sizes.  This pattern is a "one size fits most" sort of deal.  I have a 10" forearm (widest part below the elbow) and a 6" wrist and you can see there's still some ease in the way these fit me.  This isn't the easiest pattern to re-size since the stitch repeat is 16 sts long (so, if you throw in an extra repeat or take one out, it's going to change the size by about 20%).  You could throw an extra stitch into each of the repeats (you work the 16-st repeat 5 times around as the pattern is written) but it will be a little trickier to keep track of those 5 extra stitches while you're working the pattern.  If you're really dying to add a little extra circumference, I'd recommend re-sizing by using a sport weight yarn and size 3 or 4 needles, though you'll probably want to switch back to the #2 needles to work the hand section since hands don't differ in size much, even when body weight is significantly different.

For anyone who reads my blog or follows me on Facebook, I'd like to offer you a coupon code to get this pattern for free as a "Happy Holidays and thanks so much for supporting me this year!" gift.  The code you will enter is "Very Jazzy Christmas".  The code is only valid when you purchase the pattern through Ravelry and you can do that either on the Ravelry.com site or through the pattern page on my blog (click on the "patterns" tab at the top of this page).  You do not have to be a Ravelry member to make a purchase through my blog.

Please feel free to link to this blog post from your own blog if you'd like to share this code with your readers.  (Please don't simply re-post the code, since I do want people to know the source of the code.)

This would make a great quickie gift for someone you love this holiday season.  I hope you enjoy making your Jazz Hands, and I hope you share your finished projects either on Ravelry or upload a picture to the Trappings and Trinkets page on Facebook.

Cheers!