Finger-Knitted Rainbow Scarf

About

You Will Need (3 things)

Steps (17 steps, 180 minutes)

1. 1

   The base of this scarf will be made from long finger-knitted “ropes.”

   Start off with a piece of yarn that’s still attached to the skein.

2. 2

   With your palm facing you, clasp one end of the yarn between your thumb and your index finger, as shown.

3. 3

   1. Wrap the yarn under your middle finger, over your ring finger, and under your pinkie.

   2. Bring it back over your pinkie, under your ring finger, over your middle finger, and under your index finger.

   3-4. Repeat the over/under wrapping process two more times, until you have what looks like two dashed lines of yarn across your fingers, like in photo #4.

4. 4

   Now it’s time to start knitting! Pull each loop from the bottom row of yarn (marked with pink dots in this photo) up and over the top row of yarn and your fingertips.

5. 5

   You’ll be left with just one row of yarn along the palm side of your fingers. Push these loops down your fingers a bit (as shown).

6. 6

   Continue repeating steps 3 - 4, until your knitting begins to take shape.

7. 7

   Once you've made some progress with your knitting, you can kind of tug on the end a bit and it’ll start to look more like a rope.

8. 8

   When your rope reaches the length you want it to be, finish the end off by weaving the tail into and out of the loops on your fingers. Then remove the yarn from your hand and tug the end again to tighten it up.

9. 9

   These are much shorter versions of what your finished ropes will look like. For reference, my finished ropes were about 60 inches long.

10. 10

    Pair off your ropes in whatever color combinations you like, such as red/orange, yellow/green, and blue/purple, and tie the loose ends together.

11. 11

    Using a crisscross pattern, lace each pair of ropes together with a piece of matching yarn.

12. 12

    Gently tug on the yarn as you go along to help close up the gap.

13. 13

    Once you’ve laced the entire thing up, tie the loose ends together and snip off the excess.

14. 14

    To make this scarf actually look like a scarf, you’ll need to lace all three of the rope pairs together, just like in the previous step. If you don’t want to bother with the lacing, you can braid the ropes together instead, or even just wear them as-is! It’s up to you.

15. 15

    To make our rainbow look extra rainbow-y, we're going to make some cloud-esque pompoms to attach at the ends of our scarf.

    1. Wrap some more yarn around your hand (or a small piece of cardboard) multiple times to create a bundle.

    2. Lay that bundle on top of a length of yarn about three times longer than the length of the bundle (see photo 2 above).

    3. Triple-tie that loose length of yarn around your bundle. Tie it tight! This will create a bunch of loops on either side of the knot.

    4. Mark the ends of the yarn that you used to tie your bundle with a piece of tape or a marker so that you won’t get them confused with the rest of the yarn—you’re gonna need these strings in a minute.

    5. Cut all of the loops open with your scissors and give the pompom a trim! Remember: Don’t cut the yarn that you marked in step 4! But otherwise, don’t be afraid to cut off a lot—pompoms usually look more pompom-y once you’ve cut away a good portion of the yarn.

16. 16

    Weave the strings that I told you not to snip through the ends of the scarf and tie them together to secure the pompoms in place.

17. 17

    And you're done!