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This horizontal garter stitch scarf is a favorite stash busting project of mine because it uses a little bit of a lot of different kinds of yarn. Each row is worked with a different kind of yarn, and you leave long ends on both sides so you don’t even have to weave in any ends and the scarf makes its own fringe.

Horizontal Scarf Concepts
This horizontal garter stitch scarf is more of a recipe than a pattern, because you can make it any way you want once you understand the concepts.
It’s a horizontal scarf because it’s worked from the long side instead of the short side. That means the number of stitches you cast on determine the length of the scarf and each row you work adds to the width.
Given that, you can make your scarf as long and as wide as you like. Either cast on more or fewer stitches or work more or fewer rows, or both, to make it the size you want.
Likewise it doesn’t have to be a garter stitch scarf if you don’t want. You can make a scarf like this in any simple repeating knit and purl pattern like moss stitch or seed stitch. I’ve done it with linen stitch, too. If you do ribbing it will make short ridges across the width of the scarf, but that could be interesting, too.
Just make sure if you are working a pattern that needs a particular multiple of stitches (moss stitch, for example, needs an even number of stitches) that you are casting on that number or multiple of stitches when you begin.
What You Need to Knit this Scarf

How much yarn you will need will depend on how long and wide you want your scarf to be. My scarf weighs 124 grams, which based on the weight per gram of one of the yarns I used would give you about 132 yards of yarn total. But there are lots of different kinds of yarn in this project so it’s hard to guess based on just one type.
I would say it would be good to have about 250 to 300 yards of various odd balls. I used 23 different colors, so that would be about 6 yards each, but again this can vary based on the weight of the yarn, how many stitches you are working with, what stitch patter you are using and how long you leave your ends.
My scarf is 94 inches/about 2.4 meters long, and the fringe on each side is about 12 inches/30 cm though I wasn’t particularly careful about making them all the same length. It is 4 inches/ 10 cm wide.
If you don’t have a ton of stash to work this project, you can make it in stripes or even a solid color if you like, you just won’t have the ends on every row to make fringe (unless you stop and cut the yarn each time, which you can!).
Because I wanted a slightly open look and to be able to use medium and bulky yarn both in the project, I used size 13 US/9 mm knitting needles. I used a circular needle to accommodate all the stitches. It doesn’t have to be as long as your scarf is, but as long as you have will be good.
Horizontal Garter Stitch Scarf Knitting Pattern
To make a scarf like mine, start with both ends of one of your balls of yarn if you can access them (or use two balls of the same kind of yarn) and work a long tail cast on. You can do a knit cast on instead, it will just take a very long time. Using two ends means you don’t have to estimate how long your tail needs to be, and you can leave a tail at the beginning and at the end.

Leaving tails of about 12 inches/30 cm and using two balls of yarn, make a slip knot. This will not count as a stitch.

Cast on 200 stitches using the long tail cast on, using one ball for the yarn on the front finger and one for the back.

Leaving tails of about 12 inches/30 on this end, cut both pieces of yarn. Remove the slip knot.

Pick your next ball of yarn, leave a tail of similar length to the cast on tail and knit across. Leave a tail and cut the yarn.
Repeat as many times as you like for the width of your scarf.

Use a new ball of yarn, leaving tails in the same manner, to bind off.
To finish the scarf, tie two or three of the tails together across each side of the scarf to make tassels.

A horizontal garter stitch scarf like this is surprisingly fast to make, probably because you won’t want to stop knitting as you observe how the colors play with each other.
