I didn’t avoid them – they are there, just not noticeable because of the loft of the yarn – they would show up if I blocked this. Caveat – while I’ve never tried these, my knitting book tells me that the holes can be avoided by working a yarn over at the turn. Not having knit this technique, I cannot begin to describe how to do it. The Knitter’s Handbook, a little techniques book by Knitters Magazine also has a section about hiding the holes which I haven’t tried and can’t explain. *lol*

Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.

If you want to knit a really basic short row swatch to see how this works (it’s easier to do then to explain) do this.
Cast on 10 stitches.
Row 1 — Knit ten stitches.
Row 2 – Knit eight stitches, and turn the work as if you had finished the row, leaving two stitches unknit.
Row 3 — onto the the needle with the two un-knit stitches, knit 6 stitches — this leaves two stiches un-knit. Turn the work again.
Row 4 — Knit to the end of the row.
Row 5 — Knit to the end of the row.

This will give you a funny little oval swatch thingie — you can see that the rows in the middle of it have fewer stitches across (8) then the rows on the outer edges do. They are short a few stitches. Which is what I often think of designers who include this feature to excess in their patterns… but that’s another topic.

Regarding the size — my version of this is larger then what the model on Knitty is wearing — I estimate it’s about twice as wide, and I could fold it in half if I wanted it too. The pattern isn’t supposed to be folded — I just didn’t knit it to the precise gauge the designer asked, and I knit it in a different yarn, which has given me a similiar but larger piece. If you want to knit something smaller, you’ll want to pick a fiber closer to what the designer used, and be sure to knit to gauge, or check out the link to Nicole’s downsized version.