The Italian stitch (looks like Bargello) is from a book named Pocket Encyclopaedia of Needlecraft written by a British author Judy Brittain. She suggested the readers to use this knitting jackets, skirts or scarves. I designed this kind of cashmere cowl using stripes and her Italian pattern.

This kind of cowl of 60cmX30cm is fit for an adult, unisex. You can choose two colors you like, eg. white X red, or white X black, or even three colors.

I knit both cowls using 2-ply cashmere (about 50g for the black/red/white one and 70g for the red/white one) and 2.5mm needles, tons of work. I would suggest you choose Merino worsted.

Gauge

Italian stitch 4 inches=45 stitches X 82 rows
Stripes 4 inches=40 stitches X 58 rows

As they require different gauge, I knit 122 stitches for the Italian stitch, and reduced to 106 stitches for the stripes.

I am sorry that there was a mistake on the PDF you download before Feb. 12, there was one more sl1 on row 5& 6.

The correct instruction for Row 5-6 should be:

Row 5, white, k1,＊k2＋（sl 1＋k2）X3＋sl 1＋k1＋sl 1＋（k2＋sl 1）X3＋k1, k1
Row 6, white, k1,＊p1＋（sl 1＋p2）X3＋sl 1＋p1＋sl 1＋（p2＋sl 1）X3＋p2, k1