I want to knit an everyday long-ish black scarf for my friend (who is a guy). I’m a beginner knitter and I have trouble trying to figure out gauge and how many stitches to cast on to make things without using a pattern.
The yarn I bought is : Rowan chunky, 100% wool. It says to use size 13 needles (US) which I have. The gauge thing on there says 10cm/4 inches, 11 sts, 14 rows. There’s approx 110 yards in one skein (I bought two).
So if anybody can help me…how many stitches should I cast on? I don’t want it to be super wide…just a normal, fairly long scarf for a man to wear throughout the winter (to replace his fave scarf). I’ll be doing garter stitch for the whole thing.
ALSO - I’m currently making my first scarf and it’s for myself. I noticed that it’s wider at the beginning and now it’s gotten narrower. How/why does this happen? And how do I prevent this from happening on this black scarf I’m going to make? Am I just knitting looser at the beginning?
let’s start with your scarf. do you remember how many stitches you cast on? Do you still have that same amount? if so your work has gotten tighter. there is a great article here that helped me a lot when i first started knitting. If it doesn’t have the same number of stitches then you have either knit a couple together somewhere along the line or you have dropped some stitches. See any holes?
As far as the gauge and all that for the man scarf…eh. It is good that you want to make sure you are at gauge but seriously…it’s a scarf. no real need to make sure it “fits.” Do you have a pattern of any sort that you want to do? That would determine how many stitches you should cast on. if it is just a basic garter stitch scarf i would say maybe 15 stitches would be good? That would be a good use of your gauge swatch i suppose. figure out how wide you want it, swatch to see how many stitches you are getting per inch and go from there.
thanks for the reply. No, I don’t remember how many sts I cast on for my scarf. It’s also hard to tell if there are holes because I’m using this fuzzy mohair yarn.
Yeah I don’t need the black scarf to be perfect…just wondering what would be a good number to cast on. I’m not using a pattern
good idea except he lost his scarf…that’s why I want to make him a new one. And I can’t remember exactly how wide it was. I think it was kind of on the narrow side and long…
If your scarf is ribbed, the cast on and cast off edges will look a little wider than the middle, just because of ribbing’s tendency to pull in on itself.
For your boyfriend’s scarf, I would do a narrower scarf, maybe casting on 15 or so stitches. That way you’ll have a narrower but longer scarf with the yarn you’ve bought.