Neckwarmer pattern

A few people have asked me how I knitted this neckwarmer, and if I could post the pattern for it, so here it is. This is more of a description of how I did it than a specific pattern. If you find anything that looks strange, or any errors in the pattern, please let me know.

Neckwarmer

Materials

Needles
- 5 dpn:s, 3 mm
- 1 circular needle, 3 mm

Yarn - Rowan 4 ply soft
* 2 skeins black
* 1/2 skeins red

One spare 2,5 mm circular needle


Gauge
7 sts / 2,5 cm (i.e. 1 inch). It's not the end of the world if you don't get gauge! It stretches a lot anyway, and it doesn't have to be a specific size.


Cast on 112 stitches using a stretchy cast on method. I used long-tail. Divide the stitches on 4 dpn:s.

Work in K2 P2 rib for as long as you like. I wanted the ribbing to be long enough so I could fold it double. If you don't live near the Arctic Circle, or you want less bulk and warmth around the neck, just knit the ribbing as long as you want it to be.

When you're done with the neck, the flat portion begins.

- Knit one stitch. This is now the beginning of the round, at the right front corner of the neckwarmer. You should have a knit stitch as the first stitch of the round, and a knit stitch at the end of the previous round (i.e. one of the K2 of the ribbing is "divided in half").
- Knit 32 stitches with needle 1. Switch to needle 2.
- Knit 24 stitches with needle 2. Switch to needle 3.
- Knit 32 stitches with needle 3. Switch to needle 4.
- Knit 24 stitches with needle 4.

Increase round
Needle 1: Knit 1, YO, knit 30, YO, knit 1.
Needle 2: Knit 1, YO, knit 22, YO, knit 1.
Needle 3: Same as needle 1.
Needle 4: Same as needle 2.

Plain round
Knit all stitches. At the corners, knit the YO through back of loop.

Continue with the increase round every other round, always doing the YO after the first stitch and before the last stitch of the needle, and knitting the YO through back of loop on the plain rounds. When you have enough stitches, you can switch to a circular needle if you want to (it's easy to keep track of the corners anyway). Continue like this until your neckwarmer is wide enough on the shoulders.

Knit the stitches on needle 1.
Cast off the stitches on needle 2.
Knit the stitches on needle 3. (Just leave them on needle 3 if you haven't switched to a circular, or just leave them on the circular)
Cast off the stitches on needle 4.
(You should be able to do this in one go without cutting the yarn)

You're now at the beginning of the round, at the right corner of the front piece. (You have the stitches for the back piece on a separate dpn, or hanging on the circular, just let them rest there while you knit the front piece.)
Knit 1 row.
Purl back 1 row.
Continue like this until the front piece is a long as you want it to be.
Cast off all front piece stitches.
Cut yarn.
You could also incorporate something in intarsia. I did a P, because the recipient's name starts with a P. If you don't want the back of your intarsia to show, you can knit a back side for the front piece. Just do a purl row instead of the cast off row, knit the back side until it covers the intarsia, pick up stitches with the 2,5 circular from the purl bumps at the back of the front side of the front piece (couldn't make it sound less complicated...) with a separate needle, knit all stitches together with the picked up stitches at the same time you're casting off. This also adds extra warmth.

Back piece.
Join yarn to the beginning of the back piece (right corner).
Knit one row.
Purl back one row.
Continue like this until your back piece is long enough. I made mine a little shorter than the front.
When you're done, cast off all stitches.

Border.
Start at the right corner of the back.
Pick up stitches from the front of the cast off loops along the bottom with a circular needle.
Continue picking up stitches all the way around the edge. Where there are no cast off loops, I picked up stitches as follows: pick up two, skip one, pick up two, skip one... I also tried pick up three, skip one... but that made my fabric pucker.
If you have purl bumps instead of cast off loops at the bottom of the front piece, just pick up those instead.
Make sure you have the same amount of stitches at both sides, and at the bottom of the front and back piece.
When you've picked up your stitches, knit one round.
After that, just increase the same way you did earlier. At the beginning of the round K1, YO, knit until you have one stitch left before the corner, YO K1. Do this on every other round, knitting through back of loop when you get to the YO.

When your border is wide enough, purl one round.
After that, decrease every other round at the corners, i.e. K1, k2tog, knit until you have 3 stitches before the corner, ssk, K1. Do this every other round until you have the same amount of stitches as when you started the border.

Fold back the border. Pick up stitches with the 2,5 circular from the purl bumps just below where you picked up stitches for the border. Knit these stitches together with the border stitches at the same time you're casting off.

Weave in ends. Go out in the snow and try it out. Or give it to someone who feels cold! :)