A Simple Garter Stitch Scarf!

Do you long for the days of knitting scarves in the form of a long, long swatch of garter stitch? Do you want a project you can mostly knit without looking?

This simple garter stitch scarf features:

• Simple garter stitch
• Provisional cast-on
• Simple increases
• Knitting both flat and in the round

The .PDF also includes a formal schematic and a hastily sketched visual guide to help with the transition between the two main parts of the project.

It’s actually a pretty nice project if you’ve over-invested in all lengths of circular needles, or have one of those handy interchangeable sets: a shorter circular works great for the first bit, and a long one is necessary for the second. The second section may be physically tricky at first, but work evens out as you go.

Gauge is taken from the flat knit section.
Gauge is 16 sts and 26 rows over 4”/10cm, worked flat and blocked.
Be sure to check your gauge, unless you don’t want to and have a lot of yarn on hand, and are kind of adventurous, because come to think of it, it is very hard to tell how big the scarf will be until you’re done. Okay, never mind: you can knit this at any gauge if you have plenty of yarn, but be sure to check your gauge anyway, because otherwise, oh man, who even knows, etc. I guess what I should say is “feel free to mod the pattern, but in a responsible way, so you don’t end up vexed at me when the scarf is tiny or huge because I said gauge was flexible on a scarf.”

I use a modified version of the provisional crochet cast-on. There’s a tutorial at the link! The results aren’t really different, as long as you keep in mind that the cast-on loops are the loops created with the working yarn, and the instructions start after those loops are established, not before. If nothing else, the tutorial is a mildly mortifying glance at past-me trying to put together tutorials and halfway managing. I’m not really sure; I couldn’t stand to look at it for too long.

Simple Garter Stitch Scarf works well in everything from gradient cake yarns from craft stores to luxe hand-dyed skeins (though you’ll need multiple skeins of something like Malabrigo Worsted ). The sample is shown in Caron Cakes, using 1 cake (under 385 yards)!