Knitters enjoy a little luxury, whether that’s a colourful, hand-dyed yarn, a small ball of luscious fibre, or something small that can be knit during the precious minutes they steal for themselves in the midst of busy lives. Here’s a little, luxurious project to knit for yourself, or for someone special. Designed for DK weight yarn, it works up quite quickly, and the simple 4-stitch, 2-row repeat lends itself to meditative knitting. Knit on the bias, the parallelogram shape creates graceful points on the ends, and the rich texture traps air and helps insulate from the cold.

I used one skein of PURL SOHO’S (discontinued) Mulberry Merino, and was able to knit 122 cm 48”. There are many DK weight yarns on the market from which to choose for this project. To name just a few: LAMANA’S Como yarn is 100% superfine merino; ESTELLE’S Eco Tweed DK and Highland Alpaca DK have soft alpaca in their blends, as does KNIT PICK’S City Tweed DK; ELSEBETH LAVOLD’S Silky Wool contains lustrous silk; BERROCO’S Remix Light contains 100% recycled fibres; CASCADE YARNS’ Anchor Bay is a merino wool and cotton blend, while ROWAN’S Softyak DK is an interesting cotton, yak and nylon blend.

This is a great project for beginning knitters. The skills you will need to know, or learn, are:

• cast on and bind off;
• knit and purl;
• kfb increase;
• ssk decrease.