Once you know how to make the knit stitch and how to bind off, you can knit a basic scarf using the garter stitch, which is the name for a fabric made by knitting every row. Garter stitch fabric looks like rows of little bumps.
To make your first scarf, you should use extra-bulky yarn and needles of the size recommended on the yarn label. Thick yarn and bigger needles are easier to handle.
Making a Swatch
Before knitting your scarf, you should knit a swatch of fabric using your yarn and needles. By knitting the swatch you’ll be able to measure the gauge, or number of stitches per inch. The gauge can vary depending on the thickness of your yarn, the size of your needles, and how tightly or loosely you knit.
- Cast on 10–12 stitches and knit about 10 rows.
- Measure how many stitches are needed to take up an inch of space. (Measure in the middle of the fabric; the stitches on the ends are thicker than those in the middle and will throw off your measurement.)
Multiply the gauge by the width of the scarf you want to make—that’s how many stitches you should cast on. If the gauge is two stitches per inch and you want to make a scarf that’s 5″ wide, you should cast on 10 stitches.
Knitting the Scarf
- Cast on the number of stitches you need to make a scarf that’s 5″ wide.
- Knit row after row until you’ve made a scarf that’s about 65–70″ long.
Once you learn how to make the purl stitch in addition to the knit stitch, you’ll be able to make scarves and knitted fabric of more interesting and varied textures.
