Neck warmer/Pidge/Scarflet

The little mini-scarves seem to be all the rage on the knitting and crocheting internet sites. Makes sense since they are so quick to make. You can use up left over yarns and finish up the piece before you get bored with the pattern. And when you really just want to keep your neck warm without the baggage of a really long scarf, these work perfectly. Of course, unlike a full-length scarf, when you want to take it off, you can't just drape it around your coat collar. You need a pocket or bag to put it in so you don't lose it.

I'm particularly sensitive to wool, so I need to find soft yarns to make this work for me. I had a leftover skein of Lion Brand Homespun in Tudor from a sweater I made a few years ago. The sweater was supposed to be 'over-sized' and was true to the pattern. Except it turned out to be over-sized for a large elephant! So the sweater has been abandoned, but the 'pidge' remains as a memory.

I just made up the pattern after looking at a bunch on various sites and blogs. I used size 8 needles with about 23 stitches cast on. I knit a rectangle that turned about to be 7" x 24" long. The pattern is a 10-row repeat, 6 rows of stockinette (K1,P1) followed by 4 rows of garter stitch (knit every row). This helps to keep it flat since stockinette wants to curl up (good for roll neck collars). About an inch before the end, I made two buttonholes. After binding off, I added 2 buttons to the opposite end on the long side.

I think I might try this with some other soft yarns. They would make good gifts.

Here's a photo I took of myself wearing my new scarflet: