Pattern for Stansbury Mountains Neck Gaiter

I finally finished the pattern for this gaiter. The cabled tree charts are a bear so if anyone braves this pattern, I would love to know if there are any mistakes. I made the pattern for free on my Ravelry store. I know my pattern page is getting pretty long. I will try and work on a different layout soon.

Now that I have finished this oversized gaiter, I think I will try a new version of the Trestle neckwarmer for my friend, maybe in a new color.

Neck Gaiter Finished

I finally finished the Stansbury Mountains Neck Gaiter. It really is huge, which is fine if you wear it over many layers of other coats or scarves. I am thinking that I will keep this one and try a smaller version for my friend. I talked my long-suffering husband into modeling it for me. He was miserable because he hates wool against his skin. I don’t mind it and think it is quite warm but he looks so handsome in it, I made him model it.

I love how the green wool sets off both of the tree patterns. It really does remind me of our great camping trip in the Stansbury Mountains last fall. I don’t have the pattern quite done yet. I am trying a new program to make charts and haven’t had time to fiddle with it yet. As soon as I get the charts done, I will post the pattern. And, I am going to post this one for free because I modified other people’s tree chart patterns.

So stay tuned for a pattern for this very large gaiter. 

The Stansbury Mountain Range

The Stansbury Mountain range is quite beautiful and mostly overlooked by Salt Lakers because we can’t really see them over the Oquirrhs. I never really paid them much thought before we camped there. But they have very high peaks (the highest over 11,000 feet) and a great network of hiking trails.

The mountain range is named for Howard Stansbury. Stansbury was a major in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers and led a two-year expedition in 1849 to survey the Great Salt Lake. Stansbury Island is named after him as well as the Stansbury Mountains. He also has a lizard (Uta stansburiana,) and a rose (Purshia stansburiana) named after him.

The Stansbury Mountains gaiter is coming along (and has prompted me to read up on all that history above). I really want to finish it to give to my friend especially after the big snow storm (20 inches!) that just hit us. I was thinking about trying to get a beautiful picture of the Stansburys covered in snow but the roads are so bad I don't even want to drive to the corner, so all you get is a picture off my front porch.

Cabled Trees

I modified some cabled tree patterns that I found for free on Ravelry and came up with a design for the gaiter.

I then started the cowl  - it’s slow going and going to be very large. I might have to alter the pattern once it is done and measured to make it smaller. But I like how it shows the variety of trees we camped under in the Stansbury Mountains.

Stansbury Mountains

I posted a few months ago about all the inspiration I have from the camping trips we have taken. One of those was a camping trip to the Stansbury Mountains. I was very inspired by the beautiful trees there. It was surprising to go from the Salt Flats desert to the lush mountains in just a short drive.

I want to create something for my other friend, Laurel, that I went all over the state with last summer visiting museums. If you recall, I created the Antelope Island Scarf for the first friend, Megan. The Stansbury Mountains remind me of Laurel so I am thinking about something with trees. She asked for something that could keep her neck warm that was more substantial than the Antelope Island Scarf and so I sketched up a neck gaiter that has both deciduous and coniferous cabled trees. Rough sketch is below.

I might have to look for some published cabled tree patterns to help me out. But I do have this fantastic Irish wool that I have no idea where I got it from. I think I will use that. It is fisherman's wool so it still has the lanolin in it making it extra warm and a little water resistant  too.