My first pattern!

[mamagotcha]

Quick Neckwarmer
by Katje Sabin



A little trial-and-error led me to this recipe for a super quick neckwarmer (or gaiter), and I thought I'd share it with you all... especially since this knits up in about two or three hours, and I bet you have a nice soft bulky skein in your stash and a deserving recipient who could really use it! This makes a nice stretchy fabric that easily goes over the head without destroying your hair, and flares nicely on the neck to cover any exposed skin on those chilly days.

Materials:
This one was made with about 85m (93 yards, 50 grams) of Schoeller & Stahl Wonderwool. Any super soft bulky yarn would work, though.
I used a 16" US 10-1/2 circular needle, but 10s or 11s would work too, and it would be fine to use dpns, too.
Tapestry needle for weaving ends.

Don't worry about gauge, this is a pretty forgiving project.

With a 16” 10 1/2 circular needle, cast on 60 st. (I used the long-tail cast on.)
Join, making sure not to twist.
Work 24 rows of (K2, P2)
Place marker
Row 25: (K1, M1, K1, P2) to end
Row 26: (K3, P2) to end
Row 27: (K2, M1, K1, P2) to end
Row 28: (K4, P2) to end
Row 29: (K2, M1, K2, P2) to end
Row 30-31: (K2, P1, K2, P2) to end
(if you have enough yarn to add another row of this and still have enough to bind off, go for it!)

BO in pattern, weave in ends

M1 = make one (I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's method: "Just make a backwards loop on the right-hand needle, and on the next row treat the loop as a separate stitch... Make sure to pull your working yarn tight in order to snug that loop up to the preceding stitch in order to make sure the increase doesn't leave an unsightly hole.")

ETA: Special thanks to my lovely model, Sandra Estrada!