Finishing Your Knitted Sampler Infinity Scarf

This is the final part of my 12-part Sampler Infinity Scarf Knitting Pattern Series

Sampler Infinity Scarf Knitting Pattern Navigation

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Sampler Infinity Scarf – Section 10

Stocking Stitch with Break in Main Colour

This Week’s Steps

This week we are finishing our knitted infinity scarf by:

• joining the two short ends of our rectangle together to create the infinity loop;
• adding a crocheted (or other optional) edging;
• weaving in our yarn tails and
• blocking our scarf.

If you have reached this point, you should currently have 45 sts of your main colour on your needle, with the right side of the scarf facing you.

For a straight scarf

If you are making a straight scarf rather than an infinity scarf, then cast off your final knitted section as per Seam Option 1 below and cut your yarn with a short tail. No seaming is necessary, so skip to Adding an Edging below.

If you’ve just landed on this page, click here for the first post in the Sampler Infinity Scarf Series which contains all the information you need to start this project.

Creating the Infinity Scarf Loop

Now we have finished the knitted part of the infinity scarf, it is time to seam the two short ends of our long rectangle together to create the loop that makes our infinity scarf. Below are two options for the seam – don’t cast off until you have decided which you are going to do!

Seam Option 1 – Casting Off (Binding Off) and Sewing

Cast off your stitches using the simple knit cast off method. (In the US, this is known as binding off.)

Do not cut your yarn until you have read the below!

The step after casting off your scarf will be to sew the cast-off edge to the cast-on edge to make the long rectangle you have made into a loop. You have two options once you have finished casting off:

• Cut your yarn at around 20cm / 8 inches from the last stitch, and use a different length of yarn to seam the ends of your scarf together. I recommend this method if you are less experienced with seaming knitting. It allows you to adjust your tension and/or unpick stitches as necessary from both ends. But once you’ve finished you will have three ends to secure and weave in, rather than one.
• Cut your yarn 130cm / 50inches from the last stitch, and use the yarn tail to seam the ends together. This has the benefit of giving you fewer ends to weave in (one instead of three), but you might find it harder to safely unpick if things go awry.

Decide which of the above options you wish to use, and cut your yarn accordingly. Pull the yarn tail through the last stitch on your needle to secure it.

Thread the length of yarn you are using for seaming the ends on to a blunt-tipped yarn needle.

Join the cast on edge to the cast off edge using a Horizontal Mattress Stitch.

If this is a new technique to you, search online for lots of videos and pictures until you find one that speaks to you.

You could have a go with a piece of contrast yarn first, so you can see more easily what you are doing. (Or you can do this to make a deliberate feature of the seam if you like.)

If you are using a separate length of yarn for your seam, I highly recommend starting your mattress stitch in the first V knit stitch (ie the third stitch of the rows) rather than in the garter stitch edging stitches. Once you have lined up all the Vs you can go back and use the other end of your yarn to seam the borders together. In fact, you hardly need to do anything with those first and last couple of stitches, as they will be neatly joined and covered by the crocheted edging.

The mattress stitch is supposed to be all but invisible on the right side of your knitting, but I’m usually satisfied if I can just get it to look neat! You may well do much better at this than me! I have found that the key to it seems to be to leave your stitches much looser than you think you need to.

The reverse side will be a distinct narrow raised line like this:

If you just can’t get the hang of the horizontal mattress stitch, don’t worry, just hold or pin the two ends of the scarf with right sides together and sew a seam in a similar way to sewing two pieces of fabric together. The seam will not be too noticeable in the folds of your scarf.

Seam Option 2 – Grafting aka Kitchener Stitch

If you are an experienced knitter and/or up for a challenge, you can graft the live stitches currently on your needle to the stitches at the beginning of the scarf (the cast on edge). Here’s a link to a good video on How to Graft Live Stitches to a Cast On Edge.

I have to admit I’m too nervous to attempt this method as I feel it would be difficult for me to unpick and re-do if I made a mistake (how to put the stitches back on the needle?), so personally I’m sticking to casting off and then seaming the ends with a needle and yarn as above!

Edging

I like the additional linear detail that edging the scarf in the contrast colour adds to the design of the scarf when worn.

The greatest effect is achieved by using your contrast yarn for the edging, as the main colour appears in longer sections of the scarf. However, if you prefer, work in your main colour, or you could work in one colour along one edge, and the other colour along the other edge.

Benefits of a crochet edging:

• A row of crochet creates a neat and tidy edge if the sides of your work are a little uneven (as mine often are!)
• You cover many of your yarn tails as you crochet, meaning you will have fewer tails to sew in.
• The crocheted edging also gives you somewhere into which you can weave your yarn tails, which otherwise might be visible in a scarf like this which may be seen from both sides.
• The crocheted edging stabilises the edge of your scarf, helping stop horizontal ribbed sections from stretching out of shape and stocking stitch sections from curling up.
• The normal wear-and-tear of use will usually affect the edges of your scarf first. Adding a separate edging means that this wear occurs to the crocheted edge rather than to the main body of knitting. If the yarn in the crocheted edging is snagged or worn through, then you only have to repair or replace the crochet: you will not be faced with your knitting unravelling.

To create the crocheted edges

A 4.5mm crochet hook will usually be a good choice, but use whatever size hook allows you to work comfortably with your yarn to create an even edging.

Join your contrast yarn in at any point on either edge of your scarf, and work in UK double crochet (dc) / US single crochet (sc) all the way around the edge of the scarf.

I work with the right side of the knitting facing, but if you prefer the look, you can work with the wrong side facing.

As you go along, you will need to work the edging slightly differently across each knitted section. For example, along Section 3, I worked two dc (US: sc) between each of the ridges, whereas in Section 4, two stitches in the knit rows and one stitch in each purl ridge seems to work. Alter your tension and/or change your crochet hook size from section to section, to produce an edging that neither pulls the knitting too tight (to few stitches per cm), nor starts to turn the edge ‘frilly’ by having too many stitches per cm.

As you crochet, work over as many of the yarn tails you come to as possible – that way you will have fewer to weave in at the end!

When you get back to the start where you joined your yarn, cut your yarn around 20cm / 8 inches from your hook and pull the yarn tail through the working loop to secure it. Thread the yarn tail onto a blunt-tipped yarn needle and take it under the first crochet stitch you made, and back down into the last crochet stitch you made, to neatly finish the edge.

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Variations

Sticking with a crocheted edging for your scarf, you can work your stitches more or less ‘deep’ into the knitted sections, for a different look (picture below).

If you’re a more experienced crocheter, you might try a reverse dc (US: sc) edging, also known as crab stitch, which gives a very classy-looking finish. Take care not to work too tightly if you choose this option.

Sewn edging

If you prefer not to crochet an edging, then you can sew over the edges using a blanket stitch or whip stitch. This will give many of the same benefits of the crocheted edging.

For a straight scarf

If you are making a straight scarf, add your chosen edging in a continuous fashion around all four sides of the scarf. In crochet, this usually means making 3dc (US: sc) in the corners for a neat turn.

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Weave in yarn tails

The next step in completing your scarf is to weave in any remaining yarn tails. Hopefully you have worked a fair few of them in whilst working the edging, but you will probably have a few left.

You should be able to weave them all in along the edges, under the crochet stitches, rather than on the ‘wrong side’ of the scarf which will be visible when the scarf is worn.

Blocking

You might feel it would have been easier to block your scarf before it was joined into a loop. However, I prefer to leave blocking till the very end of any project, after the ends have been woven in, as blocking can fundamentally alter your yarn (eg by flattening and even slightly felting your yarn). It’s best to include your edging in the blocking stage so that it doesn’t look or behave differently to the rest of the scarf.

So now that all the knitting, crocheting, stitching and weaving is done, it’s time to give your lovely scarf the final polish that comes from blocking. It may seem like an unnecessary step when your scarf is already perfectly wearable, but if this has been a learning project for you, give it a go as part of the learning process to see what difference it makes on your project. There are many good online tutorials about how and why you should block your knitting, this one is clear: Gathered Magazine: How to Block Knitting Projects. They explain how different stitches need to be approached a little differently. And through sad personal experience, I can tell you it is vital to check the details of your yarn carefully and to proceed cautiously, to avoid ruining your project at this point!

That’s all folks! I hope you’ve enjoyed this pattern as much as I have. It’s the first time I’ve released a pattern in instalments and it’s been so exciting seeing your updates week on week.

Do post a comment below to let me know how you found this project. I’d also be thrilled if you could share this scarf pattern and your finished knitted scarfs on social media or with your friends, as word-of-mouth recommendations are the best way to support a small business like mine:

Add or update your Infinity Scarf project on Ravelry.