This pattern began as an exercise in shopping from my stash for part of my Christmas 2023 knitting. It uses just over 220 yards of yarn (so just over a full skein) of an Aran weight yarn. The finished garment came in at a weight of 111g.

I chose an alpaca/merino blend as it is close to the face. I used Cascade Eco Duo that I had leftover from several other projects. I used three different colors - an ivory, chocolate brown and a brown marl - in different combinations. Any yarn that makes the gauge could work.

I suggest you consider your color changes in advance and weigh/divide your yarn as needed to avoid unnecessary episodes of “yarn chicken” during the project. (Go ahead, and ask me how I know!)

The color changes combined with simple ribbing stitches makes this a unisex design with sufficient visual interest to keep it from being boring while not making it so precious that it wouldn’t be suitable for daily use by any gender.

This is a customizable project. The finished sample was 10.5 inches long and about 11 inches wide. You can customize this by adding or decreasing stitches (in groups of four), or adding or decreasing rows. Be sure you make a gauge swatch first so you know what your stitches/rows per inch are.

This is a simple pattern that requires the following: knitting in the round, knit and purl stitches, being able to do color changes, casting on and off.