This December, after I finished my term two course work, I got fairly heavily into knitting again. It was lovely to relax and do something other than school work after work each day and it felt great to give Christmas gifts that I had made… plus the process of making gifts was so much more fun and relaxing than shopping!
I learned to knit at age 16 but hadn’t done much of it since my early 20s so I chose eight small projects to get me back into the swing of things. This was one pattern I liked so much that I made it, wrapped it, and gave it away – twice this year. I found the original pattern on Fave Crafts. I loved the photo but when I compared it to the pattern, I didn’t quite match up. There were too few stitches! So I made a few modifications and it turned out like this….
So here’s how I did it:
Materials:
- About 120m (or 1.5 – 50g balls) of a fairly heavy weight yarn (I used a wool/acrylic blend)
- 6.5 mm knitting needles
- Buttons (optional)
Instructions:
- Cast on 26 stitches.
- Work first 6 rows with seed stitch pattern (first row is a wrong side row)
- insert two one-row button holes on row 4 or 4 rows from the end if you want (for a video tutorial on how to create a one-row button hole check out this YouTube tutorial by The Knit Witch)
Rows 1, 3, and 5 (wrong side) – (k1, p1) twice, k1, p2, (p1, k1) twice, p3, (k1, p1) twice, k1, p2, (p1, k1) twice, p1
Rows 2, 4, and 6 (right side) – (p1, k1) twice, p1, k2, (k1, p1) twice, k3, (p1, k1) twice, p1, k2, (k1, p1) twice, k1
Row 7 – purl
Row 8 – knit
Repeat rows 1 to 8 until the neck warmer measures approximately 30 inches (this worked out to about 19 repeats of the 8-row sections for me).
Cast off loosely.
Add two buttons to the long edge on the opposite end from the button holes.
I will confess, I tried them both on before I wrapped them up (I had to test where to put the buttons after all). It fits nice and cozy around the neck, with just enough length to tuck under the collar of a warm winter coat, and enough room at the neck for movement and comfort. I might just have to make a third one, for myself!
Don’t you just love the colours of this wool? I found it at Beehive Wool Shop in downtown Victoria, BC.
Happy Knitting :)