Knitting Scarves: Measure Yarn

Video Transcript

"So we've established that for starting a scarf we're going to go with a chunky weight yarn that gets about three and a half stitches to the inch. Now I say that, but how do you know yarn gets three and a half stitches to the inch. On a ball band there'll be a little diagram like this, where it will say that the yarn gets three and a half stitches. They don't say inch, but it's implied, on a U.S. ten. Which is the size needle. And they show you the knitting needles because if it were for crochet they would put a little hook. And that way you know if they mean for knitting or crocheting. So that being said, you next want to figure out how wide you want your scarf. You have to think, and a lot of people don't know how wide they like to wear a scarf. So I take a tape measure, and I say "well", you know they say all about twelve inches. And I say, "well this is twelve inches". And they say, "no, I don't want that big a scarf". So they say "well maybe eight inches". Well that's too big. So usually about six inches is a nice width for a scarf. But for today, just so that it makes it a little easier to show, I'm just going to do four inches. So if we knit a four inch scarf, and you do your math, three and a half stitches to the inch. You are going to be casting on fourteen stitches. And that will give you about a four inch scarf. And then for yardage, usually you would need three hundred to four hundred yards, depending on the weight of the scarf."