How to Knit Striped Scarves
One of the pleasing aspects of knitting striped scarves is the feeling of getting something for nothing. Many regular knitters have stashes of yarn left over from previous knitting projects and, as yarn is expensive to buy, putting the stash to use makes good economical sense. Striped scarves can be knitted with regular or irregular striped patterns; the main consideration being that the chosen colors go together and that the yarns used are of similar weights.
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Instructions
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Decide on a stripe design. Look through your stash of yarn and pick out matching colors for the stripes. Use coloring pencils or crayons that match the yarn colors and experiment on white paper with stripe arrangements until you find a combination you like. If you're using just two colors, experiment with wide or narrow stripes, or a combination of the two.
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Cast on 42 stitches with the first color. Knit the first row. This is the right side of the work.
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Knit the first four stitches, purl to the last four stitches, knit the last four stitches. This is the wrong side of the work. These two rows form the border in stockinette pattern.
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Continue to knit rows using your first stripe color, keeping to the two-row pattern to produce a stockinette stitch with a garter stitch border. For narrow stripes you may wish to change color after six rows, or for wider stripes you may decide to knit for 20 rows before changing colors. How wide you make the stripes is your choice.
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Break the yarn at the end of a row when you decide to start the second color. Hold the second color of yarn as though it is already attached to the knitting, then knit across the row as normal, following the pattern. At the end of the row tie the yarn ends of the first and second color together in a double knot, pulling the knot snugly against the side of the knitting.
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Continue to knit, following the pattern and your stripe design, until the scarf is the length you want. Bind off. Use a tapestry needle to weave in the loose yarn ends where you joined new colors. Weave the yarn ends under and over a few stitches to hide them.
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Tips & Warnings
Add a fringe of tassels to the scarf. Use a crochet hook to loop a few strands of yarn through the stitches on the ends of the scarf. Feed the ends of the strands through the loop and pull them tight. Use all the colors of the stripes for a multicolored fringe.
Make the scarf wider or more narrow by adding or subtracting stitches.
Vary the width of the stripes for added visual interest.
The knit stitches at the beginning and end of the stockinette pattern prevent the scarf from curling in on itself. An alternative stitch pattern that won't curl is rib stitch, which also has the advantage of looking the same on both sides.
References
- Photo Credit Paul Tearle/Stockbyte/Getty Images
