How To Knit a Scarf for Beginners: 5 Essential Tips

We’re back today showcasing an interesting, and definitely helpful, knitting tutorial video from one of the fantastic knitting experts at Craftsy.com. This video highlights 5 essential tips knitters, especially those just in the beginner stage, need to be aware of when knitting a scarf.

In this particular video expert knitter Stefanie Japel show us her top techniques for making your own stunning scarves.  Scarves are a quick and fun project that use just a few balls of yarn!

Watch the video below, and read on below for full instructions!

The first thing you’ll need to do is to cast on. Long-tail cast-on works great for almost any project. Its easy to remember how to do it, and it creates a very clean-looking edge. First, make a slip knot, then put your thumb and finger between the yarn tails, and use the needle to scoop yarn from the index finger through the loop on the thumb and place it onto the needle.

One thing that can happen while knitting a scarf is that the edges look sloppy or wavy. This can be due to any number of things. First, make sure that you’re not accidentally increasing at the edges. Next, if your edge is really untidy and loose, it might help you to slip the first stitch of each row, instead of knitting it.

If your scarf has a textured stitch pattern like this rainbow ridge scarf from Lion brand yarn does, your finished edge will look much neater if you bind off in stitch pattern. This means that if you come to a purl, you purl then slip the last stitch over, if you come to a knit, you knit, then slip the last stitch over.

You also want to be sure not to bind off too tightly. You can use a needle two sizes too large to bind off if thats your problem. In order to really show off the work you’ve done, its a great idea to block your scarf.

You can use either pins or blocking wires along each edge, and apply a blast of steam from an iron,  OR you can dunk the whole thing in a nice warm bath and lay it flat to dry. Once you’ve finished blocking it, you can see that my scarf looks textured, tidy, and terrific.

This video tutorial was created by Craftsy, and features Stefanie Japel, one of the knitting experts at Craftsy.com. I encourage you to visit the website to discover various free knitting patterns and get inspired for your next knitting project!