Knitting is my favourite hobby. There is nothing I like more than poking about in my local yarn shop among all the soft and colourful yarn, handling the sample projects that set my brain going. There is so much to knit – sweaters, dog coats, placemats, dishcloths, curtains, coverlets, shrugs, skirts, socks, shawls, purses, jewellery, even belts. So little time.
One of my all-time favourite projects is, of course, the scarf. And I can give you not one reason but five.
1. Scarves are easy
Whether you are a beginner or have been knitting for two lifetimes, nothing quite fills the bill like a scarf. Find a simple pattern you like, pair it with a spectacular colour, and you will have something worth wearing.
There is no shaping to manage and no assembly at the end. All the attention goes into the stitch and the yarn, which is exactly where a beginner’s attention should be.
2. Gauge does not matter
That irksome business of working a swatch and measuring it – with a scarf you can simply skip it.
A scarf has no fit to get wrong. If it comes out a little wider or narrower than the pattern says, it is still a scarf. This is genuinely liberating, and it is why a scarf is the right first project for almost everyone.
3. It is portable
A scarf fits in a bag. You can knit it on a train, in a waiting room, in front of the television. Unlike a sweater, it never reaches the stage of being an unwieldy mass of fabric you cannot take anywhere.
4. It shows off good yarn
A scarf uses a modest amount of yarn, which means you can afford something you would never buy enough of for a garment.
A single skein of something beautiful – hand-dyed, hand-spun, a fibre you have always wanted to try – becomes a whole finished object. And a scarf is worn where people see it.
5. It always fits
Which makes it the safest possible gift. You do not need anyone’s measurements, you do not need to guess a size, and nobody has ever been given a scarf that turned out too small.
A note on choosing yarn
Softness matters more than for almost any other project, because a scarf sits against the neck and the face. Yarn that feels acceptable in the hand can be intolerable there.
Test it against your neck, not your fingers, before you buy enough for a whole scarf.
