Easy Knitting Scarf Patterns

One of the easiest projects for a beginner to customise is a knitted scarf, but you are still going to need an (easy knitting) scarf pattern.

Garter Stitch Scarves

Perhaps the easiest kind of scarf to knit is a garter stitch scarf. Garter stitch is the most basic knitting stitch, where all stitches are knit stitches - no purl at all!

You will find detailed instructions for knitting a 22 cm wide Garter Stitch Scarf on this page, but it is easy to vary the width and length of the scarf to suit your needs.

Basically all you do is to start casting on your stitches, keeping an eye on the width of your work as you go. When the measurement of the cast on stitches matches the width you want for your scarf, you just turn your needles and start knitting. And you just keep knitting until your scarf is the length you desire.

Personally, I tend to like long scarves so most of mine are between 180 and 200 cm long.

Striped Garter Stitch Scarves

This one is a variation on the simple garter stitch scarf. For a 200 cm long scarf in 8 ply, you will need about 200 grams of wool. Instead of buying all one color, how about buying four 50 gram balls of wool in different colors and making yourself a striped garter stitch scarf?

You can either knit your scarf in four blocks of color or you can alternate your colors all the way through your scarf.

To do a block scarf you simply select the first color you want to use and knit until you have used up the ball. Then you switch to the second, then third and then fourth colors and knit until you have used all the yarn.

I would advise that you change colors between rows rather than in the middle of a row, it looks better and it is easy to weave in the yarn ends.

For a repeating stripe pattern, you just need to work out how deep you want each stripe and work out how many rows you need to do for each one. For example you might decide that each of your stripes will be twenty rows deep. In that case you would cast on using your first color and knit twenty rows. You would then change to your second color and knit another twenty rows.

Then you would change to your third color and so on, repeating the each color in turn until your scarf is the right length.

Basic Rib Scarves

When I am knitting a rib scarf, I usually do a two by two rib. You can do a one by one rib if you prefer, but I like the look and feel of the wider rib on a scarf.

As with the garter stitch scarf, you can easily vary the width and length of your scarf by increasing or decreasing the number of stitches you cast on and doing more or less rows.

For a one by one rib scarf you will need to cast on an uneven number of stitches and your first row would be:

1st row: K1, [p1, k1] repeat to end of row.

For a two by two scarf you will need a multiple of four plus two, and your first row would be:

1st row: K2, [p2, k2] repeat to end of row.

All of your subsequent rows, you just follow the pattern set in the first row (knit all knit stitches and purl all purl stitches).

If you are not confident enough to make up your own rib scarf pattern as you go, you will find a pattern for an 8 ply two by two rib scarf on this page. If you would prefer to knit with a heavier ply (it is faster!) you could try this chunky rib scarf pattern.

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