Knitting Scarf

My Knitting Scarf Story

My grandmother taught me to knit a long time ago. I quit for several years after high school but have picked the obsession back up in the last couple of years.

I started my return to knitting with a giant knitted afghan in Red Heart's Hokey Pokey yarn (variegated orange yarn, mind you). the design was simple but it took forever to finish. I was going to donate it to Project Linus when I finished, but after spending six months on the thing I decided I should keep it for myself.

It probably took me six months to finish because I also made a bunch of scarves while I was working on it. I'm probably pushing a dozen homemade scarves (still a small collection) and I don't think I'll ever stop making them. I have simple scarves and elaborate ones, patterns I made up and patterns I borrowed from other great knitters.

The great thing about scarf knitting is that there's always room for one more. Until you have a scarf to go with all your winter outfits, anyway!

Knitting Scarf Ideas

Another great thing about scarf knitting is that you can find patterns anywhere or make up your own patterns quite easily. If a stitch pattern intrigues you, but you aren't sure you'd like a whole sweater or wrap in that design, make a scarf instead and see how you like it.

I have been meaning to do this with farrow rib, a technique I'm completely intrigued by but haven't had a change to play with yet.

When I do have time, here's the process I will use to make my own knitting scarf pattern. I'll probably choose a nice but plainish yarn (meaning nothing with a lumpy texture) and determine the recommended gauge for said yarn. (You can usually find a gauge statement on the label, showing how many stitches per inch can be knitted on a certain size needles.)

Given that, I will buy a couple of skeins. If it's a huge skein, I might only buy one, but I like long scarves and would rather have too much yarn than not enough. If I had a pattern for a scarf similar to the length I was looking for and around the same gauge as the yarn I was looking at, I might assume that the yardage requirements would be similar. More likely I'd just guess.

Farrow rib requires stitches in multiples of three plus one (four, seven, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, etc.) so, given the gauge of the yarn you can decide how wide you want your scarf to be and that will tell you how many stitches you need.

For example, if your yarn provided four stitches an inch (it might also say 16 stitches to four inches) and you wanted a scarf that was eight inches wide, you'd need 32 stitches. So you could cast on either 31 or 34 stitches and you would come out around eight inches. Adapt this idea to whatever pattern you would like to use, or make up your own stitch pattern!

The length is also up to you. Stop knitting when you get tired of knitting on the same project, when you feel like it's long enough, or when you are about to run out of yarn. I have one scarf (the Harry Potter scarf linked to earlier) that is more than 10 feet long, and another scarf that I barely three feet long. Play around with length just as you play around with color and pattern.

Finishing Your Scarf

All you really have to do to complete a knitting scarf pattern is cast off and weave in the ends of your yarn. If you have a very structured scarf that isn't quite square, you might want to block it. This very simple process will straighten out you stitches and give you a professional-quality look.

If you've made your scarf out of fun fur or another novelty yarn that hides the stitches, don't worry about whether the sides are perfectly even. Just wear it with pride, and get another one on the needles as soon as possible.

Have fun building your perfect scarf!