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hey! i’m davina from sheepandstitch.com,and today we’re going to learn how to knit a beginners scarf step by step. this tutorialis for total beginners and complete newbies. we’ll go through all the steps together,and it’s going to be a lot of fun. so if you’ve always wanted to knit or you justneed a little refresher, then this course is for you. and if you’re already a seasonedknitter, then consider sharing this course with someone who has yet to experience thejoy of knitting. share the love! and bring them into the knitting fold. are you readyto knit? yeah? okay, let’s start knitting. title: choosing yarn and needles today i’m knitting with two skeins of tjocktmartta the merino, which is a super delicious
merino yarn. it's a one ply and a bulky weight,which means it'll knit up really quickly. i mean, look how thick that is, right? andthis is a beautiful color called pearl. and you can get these at sheepandstitch.com. i'malso knitting with a pair of 10 mm needles. now the needles and yarn that you use canbe anything that you have around. you don't have to use this particular yarn or needle. so the yarn that i'm knitting with is a bulkyweight yarn. this is nice and thick and i like this for beginners because it gives yousomething to hold onto.you can really grasp this yarn and it's easy to manipulate. i wouldrecommend that you use yarn that requires needles that are at least 5 mm in size. anythingsmaller than that is hard to manipulate for
a beginner. you want to stay away from yarnslike this. this is a sock weight yarn. and as you can see, it's really fine. it's goingto be harder to knit with. so stay away from yarns that are really thin like this. you'llwant a worsted weight or an aran weight, all the way up to a bulky weight like this ora super bulky weight. so the rule is bigger yarns are better for beginners. so what kind of needles should you use? thebest place to look is your yarn label. my yarn label here tells me that the needlesi should use are between 10 and 15mm. so when you're choosing a needle size, look to youryarn label first and use their recommended needle size as a guide.
so once you've got your yarn and needles,then you're ready for the first leg of your journey, which is casting on! woohoo! title: the cast on so now we're going to cast on. now castingon means we're going to get our yarn onto our needles. right now, our yarn and needlesare separate from each other and we don't want that. we need to get our yarn onto ourneedles so that we can knit into it, right? now obviously we're not going to wrap ouryarn like that. that won't do. we need a way to make stitches onto our needle. so that'swhat casting on does. we're going to take our yarn and make a slipknot.
we're going to go in 7 or 8 inches from thetail end of our yarn here, and then we're going to make a slipknot at this point. soi'm going to make a loop with my yarn like this. so again, no loop and now we have aloop. so we'll make a loop with our yarn and we'll take the tail end of our yarn and gobehind that loop. then we're going to pick that strand of yarn through our loop. so herewe go. pick that through and then pull. and now we have a slipknot. so let's do that again.i'll undo that slipknot and i'll go in about 7 or 8 inches from the tail end and make asimple loop. i'll take my tail end and go behind that loopthat i've just made and then pick that strand of yarn through and pull out. and now i havea slipknot.
so now i'm going to take my needle and putit through the slipknot that i've just made. so now my slipknot is on my needle. but theslipknot is really loose. it's flopping around. it's not staying stationary. so i need totighten it up. i'm going to take these two strands of yarn and pull them together andthat will tighten up my slipknot. so now you can see it's sitting nice and snug, snug asa bug on my needle. perfect. so now this slipknot has made up my firststitch. this is my first cast on stitch. pretty cool, right? but we need to cast on more stitchesonto our needle because we don't want a scarf that is this wide. we want a scarf that'sthis wide, right? we need to cast on more stitches. so what i’m going to do is takemy finger
and put it down on my first stitch here becausei don't want this to be rolling around. i want it to stay in place. lets put our fingerdown and we can start casting on. so first i'm going to take my left hand and make agun shape. then i'm going to go underneath that strand of yarn. so this is my strandof yarn that's attached to my ball of yarn. it's not my tiny tail here. so i'm going totake my left hand, make a gun, go underneath that strand of yarn that's attached to myball of yarn and then i'm going to turn it over to the left. so now you can see thati've made a loop on my finger. so i'm going to use my needle and pick up that loop offof my finger. and i’ll drop it off onto my needle and then pull down. cool. so nowi’ve just made one stitch. i've cast on
my second stitch. so let's continue doingthis. we’ll cast on a couple more stitches. i'll take my left hand and make a gun andgo underneath that strand of yarn and then turn my hand to the left. and you can seethat i've made a loop with that finger. i'll use my needle to pick up that loop. just likethat. and then pull down. there we go. so here is our third stitch. one, two, three.three stitches that we've cast on. pretty cool, right? so we'll continue doing this– making a gun with our left hand, going underneath that strand of yarn and turningit to the left. and then picking up that loop with our needle. just like that. then i'mgoing to take my hand off and pull down. now a thing to remember is that when you'redoing this, sometimes it will get tricky picking
up that loop of yarn. sometimes the loop travelsup on your finger. ah! and it's off, right? that was a close call. but if you find thatyou're having trouble picking up that yarn loop, you can hold your yarn in place. justgrab it and then let the needle pick up that loop off your finger, nice and steady. thenpull down. so as you get comfortable doing this, youcan go really, really fast. and when i do it i'm just going like this. really fast.now the official name for this cast on method is the backward loop cast on. i find thatthis method is really good for beginners. it's much less involved than some other castons. so continue casting on stitches, and cast on about 15 stitches and then we'll takestock of our stitches. so happy casting on.
this is the first leg of your journey. onceyou've completed this, you've only got two more to go. so cast on your stitches and meetme back here. title: the knit stitch so now you've cast on 15 stitches onto yourneedle. now let's take stock. so i'm going to spread out my stitches like this and takea look at the width of my stitches. so basically if we start knitting now, our scarf will bethis width. if you're happy with this width, then great. we can start knitting next. butif you feel that your scarf is too wide, then you can take off some of your stitches. solet's say i wanted my scarf to be this wide, then i would pop off some my stitches justlike this. pop them off the needle, there
we go. gone, gone, gone. and now my scarfis a bit thinner. now let's say you want your scarf to be wider,then you would cast on more stitches. so the width of your stitches is pretty close tothe width of your scarf. let's stay i want a really wide scarf. let's say i want thesame width as the scarf at the beginning of the video. that was 22 stitches. so, 2, 4,6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21 and 22. so let's say i want a really wide thick scarf,then i would cast on 22 stitches. and you can see here that is a really big wide scarf.but i kind of love that. i love the coziness of a big scarf. so now, let's move on to the next leg of ourjourney, which is the knit stitch. very exciting!
so when we work the knit stitch, we're goingto use our right needle. and we're going to go into the stitch from the bottom to thetop. so i'm going to push my needle in like that. then i'll take my yarn and go from theback to the front of my needle. then i'm going to pull that strand of yarn that i just loopedaround my needle through this stitch on my left needle, and i'll push my needle throughand push it off the needle. just drop it off. don't worry if you didn't catch that the firsttime. we'll go over this a couple more times and you can always rewind this video. so let's do this again. i'm going to takemy right needle and go into the stitch on my left needle and just push my needle throughit. just like that. and you can make really
big exaggerated movements. that's totallyfine because you're just learning the steps right now. then i'll take my yarn and go aroundmy right needle from the back to the front and then i'm going to pull the loop that i'vejust made through the stitch on my left. here we go. you can see that loop right there.i want to catch that on my needle, so i'll push my needle through and then drop thatstitch off the needle. cool. so i've just knit two stitches. so as we knit our stitches, we're kind oftransporting them from the left needle to our right needle. they're migrating over fromhere to here as we knit them. so let's keep going. now when you hold your yarn you canloop it around your finger the way i'm doing.
but if this process is making you nervous,you can just grab your yarn. you can just grip it like this. totally fine. we're justworried about getting the steps down and then we can work on the finesse and the techniqueof holding your needles. but right now we're just worried about steps. so if you want todo a caveman grip. so we'll go from the bottom to the top intoour stitch. so just push your needle through. then we'll take our yarn and go from the backto the front like this. then we'll pull that strand of yarn through our stitch and thendrop it off the needle. so you can repeat this to yourself as you knit. go from thebottom to the top. wow, that was a big one. we'll push and then we'll take our yarn andgo from the back to the front. then we'll
pull that loop that we made through our leftstitch. there it is! so we'll catch that guy, push our needle through and then drop it offour left needle. so that's all there is to the knit stitch. bottom to the top. yarn fromthe back to the front and then we'll pull that loop through. here it is. there's ourguy. there it is. and we'll catch that with our needle and drop it off the left needle.so, don't worry if you feel clumsy when you're first starting out. you can use all kindsof gripping methods. most of the people i teach will grip their yarn like this, andthat's fine. whatever feels natural to you, use that method. you really just want to getthe steps down first. so, going from the bottom to the top, using your yarn to go from theback to the front, and then picking out that
loop and dropping it off the needle. so theseare all the steps involved with knitting. and i just want you to get familiar with thesteps and then you can worry about how to hold your needles and how to hold your yarnin a way that's more efficient. all that kind of stuff, we can work on that later. thinkof it like dancing. when you're learning how to dance you want to get the choreographydown. you want to get the steps down and then you can work on technique and having morestyle and panache. but when you're first starting out, you just need to know the steps. so it'sthe same with knitting. so work on the knit stitch and you'll want to knit all the stitcheson your left needle. then we can move on to the next step.
title: next row and pep talk so now i'm nearing the end of my first row.i've just go two stitches left on my left needle. so let's knit into these two stitches.i'm going to go from the back to the front, and then pick that stitch through and thenoff the needle. and here's my last stitch. oh my gosh. so, here's my last stitch andthere we go. woohoo! so now we've just knit our first row. pretty awesome, right? lookat this beautiful first row. so great. so once you've finished your first row, youcan turn your needle around. so i'm going to take my needle and bring it to my lefthand, and take my “naked†needle, the needle that doesn't have stitches on it, intomy right hand. so that's what you do when
you finish a row of knitting. you always transferit back to your left hand. your left hand is for all your stitches. your right handis for your working needle or your “naked†needle.so now we're going to do the exact same thing that we just did. we're going to continueknitting into our stitches. so, bottom to the top. the yarn goes from the back to thefront, and then we'll pick up that loop, push it through our needle, and then drop it off.so that's all there is. we would keep on knitting. learning how to knit is a lot like learninga new language for your hands. if this is your first time knitting, yourhands have never held yarn and needles and tried to manipulate them at the same time.it's a lot to get used to. so in the same
way that when you're learning a new language,you wouldn't expect to be fluent in a day, you can't expect to be an expert knitter ina day, even if you practice a lot. your hands need to get used to the rhythm of knitting,and that takes some time and practice. so don't be discouraged if your first couplerows are a little bit funny and maybe there's some weird holes in them. just take the timeto practice. give it some time and don't be too worried if you make mistakes. practiceand have fun with it. your hands are really smart. they'll find their way around youryarn and needles as you practice. title: how to hold your needles (once you'recomfortable with the knit stitch) once your hands are comfortable holding yourneedles and speaking the language of knitting,
then you can hold your needles in a way that'sless clumsy. how i hold my yarn is i’ll take my right hand and this finger, the onethats beside my pinky finger, and i'll grab my yarn and wrap it around my finger likethis. and you can wrap it around once or twice. it doesn't really matter. just find what worksfor you. i usually go once like this. so i’ll take my finger and go around my yarn oncelike this. then i'll use this finger beside my thumb and go underneath that strand of yarn.so my hand configuration looks like this. then when i knit my stitches, i just movemy hand up. i'm going to move my hand up and then wrap it around my yarn and go throughthe stitch like that. that way i'm not grabbing my yarn and moving my whole hand in that motion.instead i’m just moving my hand. so i'm
really just moving my hand upwards and catchingthe yarn onto the needle and pulling it through in one really fluid movement. so i'll show you how i wrap my yarn again.here's my finger. just wrap it around and i’ll take this finger and go underneaththat yarn. so that gives the yarn a bit of tension and when i knit i just move my handup and drop it off. and move my hand up and catch the needle with it and just move itand pick it off like that. so when you're first starting out, do not feel bad aboutholding your yarn like this: going into your needle, going all the way around and pullingit through. it’s okay. okay? it's totally okay. you have to learn the steps first andthen you can work on how you want to hold
your needles and all that fancy stuff. so continue knitting until your scarf is thelength that you like, and by the end of this you'll be an expert in the knit stitch. title: slipped selvedge now if you like the look of this clean edgehere, well it’s really easy to achieve that. all you need to do is slip the first stitchof every row. basically, when you get to the first stitch of your row, instead of knittingit as you normally would do like this, you would put your needle into it as if you weregoing to knit, and then drop it off the needle. continue knitting the rest of the stitches.that's all there is to getting a nice clean
edge to your knitting. so here we go. i'mnearing the end of my row here, and here's my last stitch. now i'm going to turn my workaround. on the first stitch of this row, i'm going to slip it. i’ll go into this stitchas if i were going to knit it, and then slip it right off. and continue knitting. and that'sall there is to getting a nice clean edge. just slip the first stitch of every row. title: the cast off hey! so look at my scarf! it's super long.look at this sea of knit stitch. i can't wait to wear this out. so now i'm ready to castoff my stitches. what casting off means is getting your knitting off of your needlesso you can wear this in public. you don't
want to walking around with a pair of needlesattached to your scarf. that's kind of weird. good conversation starter, but still kindof weird. so we want to get our scarf off of our needles, and that's what a cast offwill do. so we're going to knit two stitches. so we'llgo one, knit one, and then knit two. so now we're going to take our left needle and gointo the first stitch that we just knit. then bring it over our second stitch. so here wego. i'm just going to drop it and you can see my second stitch is right here. i’mgoing to drop it over the second stitch. so i've just cast off one stitch now. i onlyhave one stitch left on my needle . the other stitch has been cast off right here. and youcan see this as we move on. so now i've got
one stitch on my right needle and i'm goingto knit another stitch. so in order to cast off you always need to have two stitches onyour right needle. so i'm going to take my left needle and go underneath that first stitchand then bring it over my second stitch. so i'm going to go over. there it is. so nowi've brought it over and now i once again have one stitch on my right needle and mysecond stitch has been cast off right here. so let's do this again.w e would basicallywork across our whole row like this. once again i have two stitches on my right needleand i'm going to bring my left needle into that first stitch. if you're worried aboutboth of your stitches falling off your needle when you bring it over, you can always tightenthat second stitch by pulling on your yarn.
and now your stitch here is really tight againstyour needle, and when you pull your second stitch over it, it won't fall off becauseyou're pulling really tight on this yarn. so we would continue doing this. knit onestitch so that you've got two stitches on your right needle. then go into that firststitch that you just knit and bring it over the second stitch. and that's all there isto casting off. two stitches on your right needle, bring your needle into that firststitch and then over your second stitch just like this. and if you're worried you can alwaysuse your hand to grab a hold of yours stitch so it doesn't fall off. you can use any methodthat you want that makes you feel comfortable. now you can see that as we've casted off,this is the edge of our knitting and it's
being cast off of our needle nice and safely.it looks really beautiful on this nice edge here. and that's what happening as you castoff. you're binding off your stitches so that they're secure and they won't unravel. socast off all the stitches on this row and meet me back here when you have one stitchleft. we'll knit up this last stitch. so now i haveone stitch left on my row and you can see that the rest of my row has been cast off,and it looks so great! i can't wait to wear this scarf. so now we have one stitch lefton our needle, and we're going to get out our scissors. so i've got a pair right here.i'm going to cut off my tail end, but i'm going to leave five or six inches, maybe seveninches, of my tail end. then i'm going to
cut if off. so now i'm going to bring my tailend and bring it to the front of my needle. then i'm going to take my stitch and bringit over that tail end of my yarn and then just pull it through. woohoo! i'll pull tightlyon that. and now i've just cast off my scarf. can yo believe it? my scarf is off the needles,and now i can wear it out into the world. except for one last thing, which is this littleyarn tail right here and the yarn tail at the beginning of our work. we need to weavein this end so that its nice and neat and hidden into our scarf. so we're going to dothat next. title: weaving in ends so here's my tail end. i want to weave thisinto my scarf so that it's secure and also
invisible. so i'm going to use a tapestryneedle for this. you can get this at most craft stores. it's pretty inexpensive andvery handy. so if you plan on doing any more knitting you'll want to invest in a tapestryneedle. i'm going to take the tail end of my yarnand push it into the eye of this needle. and now we're going to weave this tail end intoour work. so the great thing about this fabric is that it has all these little bumps in it,which is great for camouflaging things like your tail end. so i'm going to take my needleand go into a little bump that's close to my tail end. so i'm going to go into one that'sclose by, and i'll pull it down to make it even. i'll move into this next little bumpto the left of it, and i'm going to go down
one of these bumps. so i'm going up and down.i'm not pulling really tightly. im just keeping the same tension as the knitting. so i'm goingto go up into one of these bumps, and then i'm going to go down into one of these bumps.so i'm going to go in five or six times. that's pretty good. maybe i’ll go in one more timehere. that looks pretty good to me. so after i do this, i like to stretch it out a littlebit so that the tail end isn't pulling at the fabric. that looks good. so lets lookon the other side. it looks practically invisible on this side as well. the whole point of thisis to hide the tail end and to secure it in place. so now i'm going to take out my scissorsand cut off that tail end. wow. so now you can wear your scarf out into the world, keepwarm and enjoy! and that is how you knit a
beginner scarf. thank you so much for watching! if this videohelped you out then consider subscribing to this channel for more knitting tips and tutorials.and hey! visit sheepandstitch.com to drool over yummy yarn, knitting kits and our everypopular pattern tutorials. okay, that’s it for me. i’m davina of sheepandstitch.com.have a great day and happy knitting!