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Knit a suit of chainmail armor for your little one and feed their imagination. I would have loved to have a set of knitted armor as a kid; I probably would have worn it around the house under my superman cape, and over my spiderman pajamas.
 Materials:
- About 200 grams worsted weight wool or wool blend — this will be plenty even if you want short sleeves.
- Size 15 circular needles (add or subtract a few stitches from the body if you use different size needles, or your knight is bigger or much smaller than mine. Garter stitch is VERY stretchy, so don’t sweat it too much.)
- Yarn needle
- Scrap yarn for cast on and stitch holders
Knitting the Chainmail Hauberk:
Using scrap yarn and a provisional cast on, cast on 30 st for top of shoulders.
Back: Work back and forth in garter stitch to underarm (8 ridges or so for a sleeveless hauberk, maybe 9 or 10 if you want sleeves. Use your own judgement.) Put these 30 stitches on a string, and pick up 30 from the cast on edge.
Front/neck: Work 10 stitches (right front). Cast off the next ten. Work the next ten (left front). Turn. Work ten, drop yarn, skip the ten cast off stitches, use the other end of the yarn (or the other ball) to work the next ten. Turn.
Neck increase row: work to last stitch of right front, make one, knit last stitch. Now the right front has 11 stitches. For the left front, knit one stitch, make one, knit to end. Now the left front has 11 stitches too.
Knit back across for the wrong side, using both balls of yarn to keep fronts separate.
Repeat the right-side neck increase row and the wrong-side plain row until you have a total of 30 stitches again: 15 for the right front and 15 for the left front. On the next right-side row, knit all the way across with the first ball of yarn so the two sides are joined.
Continue working back and forth to underarm (count ridges and make the front match the back), then join with back section and begin to work in the round. Place a marker at the join. Now that you’re knitting in the round, you’ll need to purl every other round to stay in garter stitch. Invite your Knight to help!
(If you don’t want to purl, leave the front and back separate and sew up the side seams when you’re done.)
When the body is long enough (to lower hip), work a split in front and back to allow easy horseback riding:
Put all 30 stitches on a string. Starting at center front (count 15 over from the side marker), pick up 30 stitches (to center back). Work these 30 stitches back and forth until the flap is long enough (8-10 ridges). Cast off.
Pick up the remaining 30 side stitches and work flap to match the other one. Cast off. Weave in ends.
If you want sleeves, pick up stitches around the arm holes. I’d work flat and weave the underarm seam so you don’t have to do any purling :)
And now, photos of the finished armor!
Thanks so much to Kara from kayray.com for sharing these instructions and photos with us!
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