How to Knit a Scarf for Beginners

Two needles, one ball of yarn, a small pair of scissors and a blunt tapestry needle. That is the whole kit. Norman works with US 15 single point bamboo needles, which measure 10 mm across, and Malabrigo Rasta in Ivory for the yarn.

Any super bulky yarn rated for size 15 needles will do. Plan on about 150 yards for a scarf 1.5 yards long, so pick up two skeins if you want a longer wrap. Go for pure wool if you can, for a reason that shows up later.

Measure off a tail about 30 inches long and keep the ball on your left. Wrap the working yarn twice around your pinky, carry it across the back of your hand, then take it once around your thumb going clockwise. Trap the tail between your ring and pinky fingers so it cannot slip.

You want an open loop sitting around the thumb with the yarn running up to your index finger. Every cast on stitch comes out of that loop, so get the hand position comfortable before you pick up a needle.

Hold one needle in your right hand. Slide the tip up into the thumb loop from underneath, reach over the yarn at your index finger, catch it from above and draw it back down through the loop. Slip your thumb free and pull gently to snug the new stitch against the needle.

Pull the needle toward you to open a fresh thumb loop and do it again. Insert, catch, pull through, tighten. Keep going until 16 stitches sit on the needle.

Turn the needle so the stitches point left and the working yarn hangs behind the work. Wrap the yarn over your pinky and across the back of your hand again, then pick up the empty needle in your right hand.

Push the right needle into the first stitch from left to right, wrap the working yarn counterclockwise around the needle tip, pull that wrap through the stitch and slide the old stitch off the left needle. That is one knit stitch. Work all 16 the same way to finish the row.

At the end of a row, swap the needles between your hands so the full one is back on the left. The working yarn will be sitting in front of the work. Move it to the back, then knit across again.

Every row is a knit row. No purling, no counting, no pattern. That is garter stitch, and it gives you those soft horizontal ridges on both faces of the fabric. Keep going until the scarf measures about 1.5 yards, which took Norman close to three hours.

Knit two stitches the usual way so both sit on the right needle. Slide the left needle into the second of those two from left to right, lift it up and over the first stitch, and let it drop off the end. One stitch is left on the right needle.

Knit one more, lift the second over the first again, and repeat all the way across. The top edge closes into a neat chain as you work. Bind off and cast off mean the same move, so either word in a pattern points here.

One stitch is left. Stretch it into a big loop, cut the yarn about six inches down and pull the cut end through the loop to lock it. Nothing unravels now, but a tail hangs off each end of the scarf.

Thread a tail onto the tapestry needle and run it through four or five stitches along the edge, pushing the needle through the yarn strands rather than between them. That split grip is what stops it working loose. Trim the excess close to the fabric.

Cut a pile of yarn lengths about 10 inches long, one or two strands per fringe. Fold a strand in half. Push a small hook through a stitch along the cast on edge, catch the folded end and pull that loop out to the front of the scarf.

Feed the two loose tails through the loop and pull them tight against the edge. Work across the end, spacing the fringes evenly, then match them on the other end. Trim everything level once both ends are done.