Afghan Seam Scarf

Suitable for brand new machine knitters. You must be able to cast on, knit without dropping stitches, creating loops on the edges, and bind off.

You have been practicing casting on and have learned to keep a good tension on the yarn, using weights, and maintaining a nice rhythm while pushing the carriage back and forth. You have a nice collection of swatches. Are you getting bored? Great! It’s time to knit a scarf.

It is extremely important that the edge stitches knit off cleanly, with no dropped stitches, split stitches, or tucked stitches. Move the edge weights up about every 20 rows to help with this.

The scarf is knit double thickness and joined together on the edges to create a tube. This seems like a lot of extra work, but it does make a nicer scarf. Why? While it is tempting to just knit long strips of plain knitting, also known as stockinet, this is actually a bad idea.

Stockinet rolls inwards. It rolls a lot. Some yarn is worse than others, but they all do it. It is simply a characteristic of stockinet, and even if blocked well, it will begin to roll up again sooner or later. Knitting a double thickness, and joining into a tube prevents absolutely all rolling.

This is what a length of stockinet fabric typically looks like when removed from the machine. The long edges curl to the purl side quite severely.

Machine knit stockinet seems to be even worse for rolling than hand knitting. Modern “soft” acrylic is even harder to work with than the stiffer yarns we all loved to hate a generation ago. The older ones could be blocked with a steam iron…even putting a slight amount of pressure on the fabric in many cases. Now many of them go completely limp with just steam. You really, really need to test on a swatch before blocking your garment.

For this pattern, you will need approximately 6-8 oz of yarn that knits to a gauge of 16 sts, 24 rows per 10 cm/4 inches. This should be a fairly soft or loose fabric, since the scarf will be double thickness.

You will also need 2 safety pins, and if at all possible a rug latch hook. It looks very much like a large latch tool, but is much easier to use for seaming. These are available in most yarn shops and craft sections of stores like Walmart and JoAnn’s. You can also use the latch tool that comeswith your knitting machine, or a large crochet hook if a rug latch hook is not available.

This pattern makes a strip of fabric that is 10 ½” wide and 60” long before seaming. Bring 44 needles all the way forward. Return the second needle from each edge to position A (out of work). This creates a little more ease, and slightly more open seam. The needle set-up is now 1 in work, 1 out of work, 40 in work, 1 out of work, 1 in work. Carriage on right. E-wrap cast on. You might find it easier to begin with waste yarn; if so, knit about an inch with waste yarn, ending with carriage on left, then 1 row ravel cord. Change to main color and e-wrap cast on over the ravel cord.

Row counter 000. Hang weights. Knit even to row counter 300, moving weights up as necessary. Remove each end stitch onto a safety pin. Cut yarn, leaving a tail approximately 4 times the width of the working needles. Change to waste yarn and knit 10 rows on the 40 center stitches; remove from machine.

Join edges together with Afghan Seam
Remove the safety pin from the right side of the scarf. Using the tip of the hook, pull out the edge stitch. This creates one long loop on the edge. Pull out another loop on the edge, then slide both of them down behind the latch.

Remove the safety pin from the left side of the scarf. Pull out the edge stitch. Instead of creating a loop, this will just loosen the main color yarn tail. Pull out the next edge stitch. Take this loop, and the yarn tail into the hook, then pull them through the loops that are behind the latch. Slide these new loops down behind the latch.

Go back to the right side of the scarf. Pull out two edge loops, then pull them through the stitches behind the latch. Continue in this manner as established, alternating sides. Fasten off the final loop with the yarn tail.

Lay the joined scarf on a large flat surface and arrange the seam where you want it. The photo shows it to one side, but the most common place is the center, shown in the photo at beginning of pattern. Pin the ends together so they cannot shift. Either sew the ends shut, or add fringe (which will also close the ends)

Now comes the best part of this pattern. It lies flat! This scarf has not been blocked by any
method. It hasn’t even been washed. It probably would look a little better with a shot of steam,
but is certainly acceptable like it is. For a charity project I wouldn’t bother with any more
fussing. Simply tuck in the remaining yarn ends, and it’s ready to go.