Hand Knitting begins by making a Slip Knot and Casting On the required number of stitches for your project. Then you follow the instructions for knitting the body of the project which in this case is knitting the knit stitch for a Garter Stitch Scarf. The final part is Binding Off the hand knitted project and doing the finishing techniques required.  This is part five of the Basic Hand Knitting Techniques Series which takes you through Photo Steps Instructions of how to do the hand knitting finishing techniques involved in our First Hand Knit Beginners Lesson.  This involves, weaving in the loose yarn ends where all the striped color changes were made, hanging the colorful tassels which consist of all seven colors, and polishing the finished wool Doctor Who Scarf by steaming and hand pressing.

Our First Hand Knitting Project for our Little Knitters Program is the Fun and colorful Doctor Who Season 12 Striped Garter Stitch Scarf.  We also offer Pure Wool Yarn Kits for this scarf which can be knit as the original Dr Who Scarf which is 15 feet long, or you can knit 2 scarves 7.5 feet long, or knit three great gifts of gentlemen scarves each 5 feet long, from this yarn kit.

Read about the entire learning process of the Little Knitters, taking them through researching to find and buy the correct yarn and colors for this Fan Based Knitting Project, drafting the knit pattern, learning the knitting techniques, then knitting this scarf for their Knitting for Charity Challenge.  Click here to read Doctor Who Season 12 Scarf Knit for Charity Challenge. You may even find a finished Doctor Who Scarf available for purchase with proceeds donated to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and The Little Knitters Program.

We share these knitting instructions with you so you can also learn to knit with a fun and colorful knit project.  Enjoy knitting with your own yarns or you can purchase the yarn kit with Spreadsheet Knitting Chart from our online Catalog.  Print out the series of instructional articles from our web site to aid in your learning to knit process.

Figure 1: Start with a Square knot or a Surgeon’s Knot.  As the name applies the Surgeon’s Knot is a knot that will not allow the yarn to slip out of the yarn.  This knot is particularly useful with slippery yarn such as rayon. 

Taking the two ends of yarn, cross the left end over the right end.

Figure 2: Pinch the top of the two yarn ends to hold them in the position that creates a circle. Taking the left end behind the right end yarn, Tuck the left end yarn through the circle bringing it to the front.

For photography purposes I threaded the left yarn end in a darning needle so you could follow the directions better.

Figure 4 Shows how the yarn is twisted before pulling the yarn ends are pulled in the opposite directions to snug the knot. 

Figures 1 thru 4 show One half of the Surgeons knot, because wool yarn is not slippery, and because I did not want a bulge of a yarn knot on the edge of my scarf – I did not do the 2nd half of the knot.

For learning purposed for other projects.  The Full Surgeons Knot  does Figures 1 thru 4, but  putting the now right end yarn over the left end yarn and tucking it through the circle one time, not two times  In our example pictures, it would always be the red yarn which is put to the front of the purple yarn and is the yarn always doing the tucking through the circle:

In summary for the knots think:  Square Knot: left over right and tuck, tighten up, right over left and tuck, tighten up.  The Surgeon’s Knot: left over right and tuck and tuck, tighten up. Right over left and tuck. Tighten Up.  Dependant upon the placement, thickness, and how slippery a yarn is, your choice of knot would vary. Sometimes NO KNOT is used, if the following weaving process would hold the yarn in place.

How to Weave in the Loose Ends of Yarn: Step Two

All Hiding of yarn ends should be done on the back side of the knitting project, in the case of garter stitch pattern both sides are the same except at the visual seam of the place where colors are changed.  The back side would show the interloping of the two colors as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Thread the yarn end in a darning needle, following the line of the knit stitch, poke the needle down through what looks like the bottom of a U, the sinker loop.  Pull the yarn through gently, so as to keep the hidden yarn the same size as the actual knit stitch.

Figure 6: Following the line of the knit stitch, poke the darning needle up through what looks like an up side down U, the upper loop.  Pull the yarn through gently, so as to keep the hidden yarn the same size as the actual knit stitch.

Figure 9:  Snip off the Hidden Yarn end close to the knitting, so as not to leave any end yarn protruding.

Hide all Yarn Colors in this weaving Fashion.  Depending upon how ‘slippery’ the yarn is will depend upon how many times you should weave up and down.  I always weave 4-6 times with wool.

Figure 10:  The Red and Purple yarn ends have both been hidden and snipped off.  This weaving should always be done in a manner to make it as invisible as possible.

Summary: It is your choice dependant upon the yarn and stitch structure of your knit project to start with No knot, square knot, surgeon’s knot, or half surgeon’s knot.  I used half surgeon’s knot in our example Doctor Who Scarf.  Then weave the yarn ends in enough times to secure the yarn end and finally Snip off the yarn end close to the knitting.

How to Make a Yarn Tassel

The Doctor Who Season 12 Garter Stitch Striped Scarf instructions are to finish the scarf by attaching 5 inch long tassels composed of 1 strand of each of the Seven Colors close together on each end of the scarf.  My scarf has 22 tassels on each side.

Cut the strands for each tassel at 12 inches.  There are 7 colors.  1 strand of each color, 12 inches long is needed for each Tassel.  There are a total of 44 tassels.  After the yarn is cut, attach the yarn as a tassel to the scarf ends.  The following photos show the steps.

Figure 11:  Using a large Latch Tool or Crochet Hook, poke the tool through the scarf edge at a 1 row depth, where you wish to place the tassel.

Figure 12:  Fold Seven 12” long strands of yarn in half.

Hook the middle of the 7 strands of yarn with your latch tool or crochet hook.

Figure 13:  Pull the strand of yarn through the Scarf Edge far enough to create a circular loop.

Figure 14: Insert your tool back through the center of the circular loop created in Figure 13 and grab all the yarn ends (14 since the seven strands were folded in half).  Pull these strand of yarn ends through the circular loop.

Figure 15:  Making sure that the 7 yarn ends are the same length, grab the end of the strands and pull away from the scarf edge to snug the tassel knot. 

Tassels can be placed as desired on the knit project. 

The Doctor Who Scarf is a Replica of the original Doctor Who Scarf worn by Tom Baker in his Science Fiction British TV Series; Dr Who.  This scarf called to have tassels placed close together.

Figure 16: If you have a large tooth comb, comb the fringe strands to even them all out and trim to approximately 5 inches or desired length.

Note: you always cut the strands longer then twice the desired finished length to compensate for the fringe attaching knot and trimming unevenness.

Figure 17:  Finished Tassels

Polish Your Knit Project with Steam and Hand Pressing

Garter Stitch is a very Stable knit structure.  This means it lays straight and doesn’t have a lot of stretch to misshape it.  In addition Sport weight Wool rarely needs much steam.  My rule is ‘knit it to size’, and just use steam to polish or give a nice finish to the project.  Passing steam over the knitting sets the stitches and often times gives a softer feel to the yarn.

I steam all my knits to give a final polish to the project.  There are several methods of steaming or blocking dependant upon the yarn, knit structure, and how much drape you want in the finished item.  I have written several articles on Steaming Techniques which I will put up on The Knit Tree’s web site as time allows.  So for this article, I am referring to steaming our sample lesson project: The Doctor Who Scarf hand knit with high quality pure wool sport weight yarn.

Figure 18: I use a garment steamer, but you can use any steam iron that gives our good steam.

Use a padded area big enough so that your scarf does not drape over the edges as you steam.

An ironing board would work in this case.  For bigger projects I made a 4’ x 4’ blocking board before I had my professional steaming vacumn table.

 Pass steam over the knit scarf 2 to 3 inches above the knitting – do not press.  You just want the steam to warm the knit.

Figure 19:  With your hands lightly hand press or spread outward to the side edges if any edges need to be brought out slightly to match the surrounding color stripes.

The wool cools quickly, then you can move to the next section and repeat steps in Figures 19 through 20 until entire scarf is steamed and hand pressed.