This little square kerchief is so necessary, you’ll wonder what you were doing without one!

(Honestly, I thought this wasn’t a very useful knit at first. If you use it like a kerchief, or use it like a wrap for physical objects, it’s going to be more fragile than a woven version. But the finished project in soft handspun is really delightful, with a double-layer of fabric when worn as an earwarmer or neckerchief, and I’m looking forward to knitting one this size in cotton, too.)

It’s a kerchief, for use in all kerchief modes. As a headwrap, it’s going to be warm in wool with a double fabric. As a neckwarmer, it will be pretty warm. As a wrap, it will have some limitations over a woven cloth, but I have to admit I had some textured, delicate furoshiki notions in mind when designing this square fabric. (It probably won’t work well for heavy carrying or wrap styles with a lot of corner-twists, but would be pretty on a lightweight gift.)

I used superfine merino wool handspun yarn for the main sample, but this would be brilliant in a sock yarn like Malabrigo Yarns Sock, and great as a little summer project in something like Schoppel Wolle’s Zauberball Cotton.

Materials:

• About 480-680 yards of fingering-weight yarn, such as Malabrigo Yarn Sock or your own handspun.
• 1 24”+ circular needle in US 3-4/3.25-3.5mm, or size needed for gauge
• Optional: 1 set of DPNs or a 16” circular in size needed for gauge, if preferred over Magic Loop-type techniques
• Removable stitch markers
• Crochet hook in size needed for yarn
• Smooth spare yarn/scrap yarn
• Tapestry needle

Gauge:
Gauge is 20 sts and 40 rows in garter stitch, worked flat and blocked lightly. Please be sure to check your gauge, although just between you and me, gauge is more important for finished dimensions and yardage than anything else in this case.

Easy Customization:
Change the size by adding or removing repeats in pattern.