It was chilly for early October. Wearing my wristers and my neck warmer, I set off to walk the four mile path folks in my neighborhood call "the Loop." Even on my busiest days, I try to squeeze the Loop in. It's when and where my best thinking is done.

After a mile or so, stretches of open, green space appear, and there's a corral with horses, Boyd's Fashionable Acres. A short jaunt from there is the old white farmhouse and a field of corn planted not far from the edge of the gravel driveway.

There's hidden path along the cornfield that leads me to where vistas of farmland open up like a Grant Wood painting. My favorite part of the Loop. I always carry a notebook and pen with me on my walks and I depend on my wristers to keep my hands warm enough to jot down ideas. But on this fall day, the wind sweeping across the broad fields made my poor hands freeze, my fingers were too cold to move. I needed hardier pair.

Walking past the cows in the pasture, my poor hands stayed in my sweatshirt pocket. If you want my opinion, those cows can be bit snooty. If I stop to watch them, they completely ignore me. I try not to take offense. With patterns on my mind, it was my turn to ignore them.

My spring wristers explored the idea of wristers as a long sleeve ending at the knuckles. What if fall wristers were made like a very, very long sleeve and extended right to the ends of the finger tips, giving full hand coverage? And what if they could be rolled back, when fingers were needed to do their job? Coaxing my stubby blocks of ice out of my pocket, I sketched out a basic shape; I even noted a few stitches I might use.

The next few weeks we enjoyed perfect fall weather. Most days I didn't even need any wristers, but I wasn't fooled. Colder weather was coming.

With all the cockiness of an experienced mitten knitter, I had thought this pattern would be a breeze. My first few samples from heavier, chunkier wool were warm enough, but too bulky and clumsy. More like gloves than mittens, wristers need a sleeker fit so that fingers can have the ease of movement necessary for life's finer tasks, like writing, sketching, fishing out keys, and finding change for the parking meter.

I tried several more yarns and gauges. Finally, the combination of Wool-Ease and Vanna's Glamour  used together in chunky yarn gauge gave me a light and flexible knit. Perfect. The wrister top folded down easily and wasn't heavy or cumbersome.

Roll down wristers at your service, just in time for colder fall weather. There's enough give in these that you could easily slip a pair of those stretchy little gloves underneath them, providing the extra protection your fingers might need towards December. Vanna's Glamour, with a strand of shimmery metallic, adds a touch of glitz to these totally functional knits. Now that's something to moo about. Maybe even the cows will notice.

Click here for Michelle's Knit Roll-Down Wristers pattern.

Click here for more knit and crochet wrister and fingerless glove patterns.