Hey! I’m Davina from sheepandstitch.com,
and today we’re going to learn how to knit a beginners scarf step by step. This tutorial
is 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 just
need a little refresher, then this course is for you. And if you’re already a seasoned
knitter, then consider sharing this course with someone who has yet to experience the
joy of knitting. Share the love! And bring them into the knitting fold. Are you ready
to knit? Yeah? Okay, let’s start knitting. Title: Choosing Yarn and Needles Today I’m knitting with two skeins of TJOCKT
Martta 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? And
this is a beautiful color called Pearl. And you can get these at sheepandstitch.com. I'm
also knitting with a pair of 10 mm needles. Now the needles and yarn that you use can
be 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 bulky
weight yarn. This is nice and thick and I like this for beginners because it gives you
something to hold onto.You can really grasp this yarn and it's easy to manipulate. I would
recommend that you use yarn that requires needles that are at least 5 mm in size. Anything
smaller than that is hard to manipulate for a beginner. You want to stay away from yarns
like this. This is a sock weight yarn. And as you can see, it's really fine. It's going
to be harder to knit with. So stay away from yarns that are really thin like this. You'll
want a worsted weight or an aran weight, all the way up to a bulky weight like this or
a super bulky weight. So the rule is bigger yarns are better for beginners. So what kind of needles should you use? The
best place to look is your yarn label. My yarn label here tells me that the needles
I should use are between 10 and 15mm. So when you're choosing a needle size, look to your
yarn 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 casting
on means we're going to get our yarn onto our needles. Right now, our yarn and needles
are separate from each other and we don't want that. We need to get our yarn onto our
needles so that we can knit into it, right? Now obviously we're not going to wrap our
yarn like that. That won't do. We need a way to make stitches onto our needle. So that's
what 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 the
tail end of our yarn here, and then we're going to make a slipknot at this point. So
i'm going to make a loop with my yarn like this. So again, no loop and now we have a
loop. So we'll make a loop with our yarn and we'll take the tail end of our yarn and go
behind that loop. Then we're going to pick that strand of yarn through our loop. So here
we 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 a
simple loop. I'll take my tail end and go behind that loop
that i've just made and then pick that strand of yarn through and pull out. And now I have
a slipknot. So now i'm going to take my needle and put
it through the slipknot that i've just made. So now my slipknot is on my needle. But the
slipknot is really loose. It's flopping around. It's not staying stationary. So I need to
tighten it up. I'm going to take these two strands of yarn and pull them together and
that will tighten up my slipknot. So now you can see it's sitting nice and snug, snug as
a bug on my needle. Perfect. So now this slipknot has made up my first
stitch. This is my first cast on stitch. Pretty cool, right? But we need to cast on more stitches
onto our needle because we don't want a scarf that is this wide. We want a scarf that's
this wide, right? We need to cast on more stitches. So what I’m going to do is take
my finger and put it down on my first stitch here because
I don't want this to be rolling around. I want it to stay in place. Lets put our finger
down and we can start casting on. So first i'm going to take my left hand and make a
gun shape. Then i'm going to go underneath that strand of yarn. So this is my strand
of yarn that's attached to my ball of yarn. It's not my tiny tail here. So i'm going to
take my left hand, make a gun, go underneath that strand of yarn that's attached to my
ball of yarn and then i'm going to turn it over to the left. So now you can see that
i've made a loop on my finger. So i'm going to use my needle and pick up that loop off
of my finger. And I’ll drop it off onto my needle and then pull down. Cool. So now
I’ve just made one stitch. I've cast on my second stitch. So let's continue doing
this. We’ll cast on a couple more stitches. I'll take my left hand and make a gun and
go underneath that strand of yarn and then turn my hand to the left. And you can see
that i've made a loop with that finger. I'll use my needle to pick up that loop. Just like
that. 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 turning
it to the left. And then picking up that loop with our needle. Just like that. Then i'm
going to take my hand off and pull down. Now a thing to remember is that when you're
doing this, sometimes it will get tricky picking up that loop of yarn. Sometimes the loop travels
up on your finger. Ah! And it's off, right? That was a close call. But if you find that
you're having trouble picking up that yarn loop, you can hold your yarn in place. Just
grab it and then let the needle pick up that loop off your finger, nice and steady. Then
pull down. So as you get comfortable doing this, you
can 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 that
this method is really good for beginners. It's much less involved than some other cast
ons. So continue casting on stitches, and cast on about 15 stitches and then we'll take
stock of our stitches. So happy casting on. This is the first leg of your journey. Once
you've completed this, you've only got two more to go. So cast on your stitches and meet
me back here. Title: The Knit Stitch So now you've cast on 15 stitches onto your
needle. Now let's take stock. So I'm going to spread out my stitches like this and take
a look at the width of my stitches. So basically if we start knitting now, our scarf will be
this width. If you're happy with this width, then great. We can start knitting next. But
if you feel that your scarf is too wide, then you can take off some of your stitches. So
let's say I wanted my scarf to be this wide, then I would pop off some my stitches just
like this. Pop them off the needle, there we go. Gone, gone, gone. And now my scarf
is 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 to
the width of your scarf. Let's stay I want a really wide scarf. Let's say I want the
same 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 our
journey, which is the knit stitch. Very exciting! So when we work the knit stitch, we're going
to use our right needle. And we're going to go into the stitch from the bottom to the
top. So i'm going to push my needle in like that. Then i'll take my yarn and go from the
back to the front of my needle. Then i'm going to pull that strand of yarn that I just looped
around my needle through this stitch on my left needle, and i'll push my needle through
and push it off the needle. Just drop it off. Don't worry if you didn't catch that the first
time. 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 take
my right needle and go into the stitch on my left needle and just push my needle through
it. Just like that. And you can make really big exaggerated movements. That's totally
fine because you're just learning the steps right now. Then i'll take my yarn and go around
my right needle from the back to the front and then I'm going to pull the loop that I've
just 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 that
stitch off the needle. Cool. So I've just knit two stitches. So as we knit our stitches, we're kind of
transporting them from the left needle to our right needle. They're migrating over from
here to here as we knit them. So let's keep going. Now when you hold your yarn you can
loop 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 just
worried about getting the steps down and then we can work on the finesse and the technique
of holding your needles. But right now we're just worried about steps. So if you want to
do a caveman grip. So we'll go from the bottom to the top into
our stitch. So just push your needle through. Then we'll take our yarn and go from the back
to the front like this. Then we'll pull that strand of yarn through our stitch and then
drop it off the needle. So you can repeat this to yourself as you knit. Go from the
bottom to the top. Wow, that was a big one. We'll push and then we'll take our yarn and
go from the back to the front. Then we'll pull that loop that we made through our left
stitch. There it is! So we'll catch that guy, push our needle through and then drop it off
our left needle. So that's all there is to the knit stitch. Bottom to the top. Yarn from
the back to the front and then we'll pull that loop through. Here it is. There's our
guy. 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 kinds
of gripping methods. Most of the people I teach will grip their yarn like this, and
that's fine. Whatever feels natural to you, use that method. You really just want to get
the steps down first. So, going from the bottom to the top, using your yarn to go from the
back to the front, and then picking out that loop and dropping it off the needle. So these
are all the steps involved with knitting. And I just want you to get familiar with the
steps and then you can worry about how to hold your needles and how to hold your yarn
in a way that's more efficient. All that kind of stuff, we can work on that later. Think
of it like dancing. When you're learning how to dance you want to get the choreography
down. You want to get the steps down and then you can work on technique and having more
style and panache. But when you're first starting out, you just need to know the steps. So it's
the same with knitting. So work on the knit stitch and you'll want to knit all the stitches
on 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 then
off the needle. And here's my last stitch. Oh my gosh. So, here's my last stitch and
there we go. Woohoo! So now we've just knit our first row. Pretty awesome, right? Look
at this beautiful first row. So great. So once you've finished your first row, you
can turn your needle around. So i'm going to take my needle and bring it to my left
hand, and take my “naked” needle, the needle that doesn't have stitches on it, into
my right hand. So that's what you do when you finish a row of knitting. You always transfer
it back to your left hand. Your left hand is for all your stitches. Your right hand
is 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 continue
knitting into our stitches. So, bottom to the top. The yarn goes from the back to the
front, 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 learning
a new language for your hands. If this is your first time knitting, your
hands 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 in
a 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 couple
rows are a little bit funny and maybe there's some weird holes in them. Just take the time
to practice. Give it some time and don't be too worried if you make mistakes. Practice
and have fun with it. Your hands are really smart. They'll find their way around your
yarn and needles as you practice. Title: How to hold your needles (once you're
comfortable with the knit stitch) Once your hands are comfortable holding your
needles and speaking the language of knitting, then you can hold your needles in a way that's
less clumsy. How I hold my yarn is I’ll take my right hand and this finger, the one
thats beside my pinky finger, and I'll grab my yarn and wrap it around my finger like
this. And you can wrap it around once or twice. It doesn't really matter. Just find what works
for you. I usually go once like this. So I’ll take my finger and go around my yarn once
like 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 move my hand up. I'm going to move my hand up and
then wrap it around my yarn and go through the 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 catching the 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 underneath
that yarn. So that gives the yarn a bit of tension and when I knit I just move my hand
up and drop it off. And move my hand up and catch the needle with it and just move it
and pick it off like that. So when you're first starting out, do not feel bad about
holding your yarn like this: going into your needle, going all the way around and pulling
it through. It’s okay. Okay? It's totally okay. You have to learn the steps first and
then you can work on how you want to hold your needles and all that fancy stuff. So continue knitting until your scarf is the
length 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 edge
here, well it’s really easy to achieve that. All you need to do is slip the first stitch
of every row. Basically, when you get to the first stitch of your row, instead of knitting
it as you normally would do like this, you would put your needle into it as if you were
going 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'm
nearing the end of my row here, and here's my last stitch. Now I'm going to turn my work
around. On the first stitch of this row, I'm going to slip it. I’ll go into this stitch
as if I were going to knit it, and then slip it right off. And continue knitting. And that's
all 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 cast
off my stitches. What casting off means is getting your knitting off of your needles
so you can wear this in public. You don't want to walking around with a pair of needles
attached to your scarf. That's kind of weird. Good conversation starter, but still kind
of weird. So we want to get our scarf off of our needles, and that's what a cast off
will do. So we're going to knit two stitches. So we'll
go one, knit one, and then knit two. So now we're going to take our left needle and go
into the first stitch that we just knit. Then bring it over our second stitch. So here we
go. I'm just going to drop it and you can see my second stitch is right here. I’m
going to drop it over the second stitch. So I've just cast off one stitch now. I only
have one stitch left on my needle . The other stitch has been cast off right here. And you
can see this as we move on. So now i've got one stitch on my right needle and I'm going
to knit another stitch. So in order to cast off you always need to have two stitches on
your right needle. So i'm going to take my left needle and go underneath that first stitch
and then bring it over my second stitch. So I'm going to go over. There it is. So now
i've brought it over and now I once again have one stitch on my right needle and my
second stitch has been cast off right here. So let's do this again.w e would basically
work across our whole row like this. Once again I have two stitches on my right needle
and i'm going to bring my left needle into that first stitch. If you're worried about
both of your stitches falling off your needle when you bring it over, you can always tighten
that second stitch by pulling on your yarn. And now your stitch here is really tight against
your needle, and when you pull your second stitch over it, it won't fall off because
you're pulling really tight on this yarn. So we would continue doing this. Knit one
stitch so that you've got two stitches on your right needle. Then go into that first
stitch that you just knit and bring it over the second stitch. And that's all there is
to casting off. Two stitches on your right needle, bring your needle into that first
stitch and then over your second stitch just like this. And if you're worried you can always
use your hand to grab a hold of yours stitch so it doesn't fall off. You can use any method
that 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 cast
off. You're binding off your stitches so that they're secure and they won't unravel. So
cast off all the stitches on this row and meet me back here when you have one stitch
left. We'll knit up this last stitch. So now I have
one 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 left
on 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 seven
inches, of my tail end. Then i'm going to cut if off. So now i'm going to bring my tail
end and bring it to the front of my needle. Then i'm going to take my stitch and bring
it over that tail end of my yarn and then just pull it through. Woohoo! I'll pull tightly
on 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 little
yarn tail right here and the yarn tail at the beginning of our work. We need to weave
in this end so that its nice and neat and hidden into our scarf. So we're going to do
that next. Title: Weaving in Ends So here's my tail end. I want to weave this
into my scarf so that it's secure and also invisible. So i'm going to use a tapestry
needle for this. You can get this at most craft stores. It's pretty inexpensive and
very handy. So if you plan on doing any more knitting you'll want to invest in a tapestry
needle. I'm going to take the tail end of my yarn
and push it into the eye of this needle. And now we're going to weave this tail end into
our 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 needle
and go into a little bump that's close to my tail end. So I'm going to go into one that's
close by, and i'll pull it down to make it even. I'll move into this next little bump
to 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 going
to 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 time
here. That looks pretty good to me. So after I do this, I like to stretch it out a little
bit so that the tail end isn't pulling at the fabric. That looks good. So lets look
on the other side. It looks practically invisible on this side as well. The whole point of this
is to hide the tail end and to secure it in place. So now I'm going to take out my scissors
and cut off that tail end. Wow. So now you can wear your scarf out into the world, keep
warm and enjoy! And that is how you knit a beginner scarf. Thank you so much for watching! If this video
helped 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 every
popular pattern tutorials. Okay, that’s it for me. I’m Davina of sheepandstitch.com.
Have a great day and happy knitting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMidRRpkr0s
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