Now 2 for 1 with the scale mail neck piece - buy them both for the price of one, or if you already bought it, claim your free copy of the neck piece pattern!

Major update for 2026 with new pictures, improved charts, and more guidance for beginners! The pattern has also been rewritten to improve readability.
Now links to new video tutorial as well as step-by-step photos for the knit scale technique.

The pattern and chart pages are photo-free and can be printed in black and white. In all my patterns I use minimal colour coding, and always include other tells (usually via shapes or symbols) so that it is not vital to the pattern, to make it colour-blind friendly.

The choker can be made in slightly different weights of yarn as long as you match your needles to meet the gauge - a worsted or aran weight can be used to make much lighter weight choker, while the recommended bulky yarn such as James C Brett produces a dense and warm base fabric that more firmly holds the scales in place.

Legacy notes included for completion:
A fairly simple pattern for scaled chokers, uses mainly knit stitches with some modified knit stitches to knit the scales right into the fabric (step-by-step photos for this technique included)
Also uses K2TOG decrease and YO to create eyelets for lacing the choker up.
The choker can be worn either way up.

This pattern includes three options for the width of the choker (1, 1.5, and 2.5 inches wide) and is freely sized in length as they are laced up at the back. The minimum length (when choker ends are laced as close as possible) is around 12 inches.

Required
31, 77, or 124 scales for narrow, regular, or wide respectively
any small scale from TheRingLord.com is suitable (any approx 9/16” by 7/8”leaf shaped scale with 5mm hole should also do)
large scales will not work for this pattern
Also requires some material to lace up the choker at the back, such as leather string or ribbon - you will need 1m (2m for wide choker) of lacing material

Yarn - a small quantity of aran, worsted, or the narrower chunky yarns work well with the scales (adjust the needle size to achieve gauge)

The given gauge is on a plain piece of garter stitch, without any scales