How to knit a scarf in 30 minutes – no needles required!

Knitting a scarf is on my list of things to do this year and I found a scarf that not only looks great, you can make on your arm – in 30 minutes!

What you’ll need:

2 balls of thick wool of your choice

Method:

1. Find the ends of both of your balls of wool.

2. With both ends together, measure 4 feet in on your wool; this section will be called the tail (and used to weave ends of scarf together if you want to join them).

3. Do a slipknot in your wool.

4. Place the slipknot over your arm and tighten slightly.

5. Separate your tail and your working wool with your fingers.

6. To make the stitches, put your hand through.

7. Repeat until you have 12 stitches on your arm.

8. Now you are ready to knit and make your scarf longer. Hold your working wool and slip the stitch off your arm and over the wool to make a loop. Put your other arm through that loop and tighten slightly.

9. Repeat until all your stitches are on your other arm.

10. Repeat step 8 to grow scarf and move to the other arm.

11. Repeat until scarf is desired length to wrap around your neck twice (approximately 20 times).

12. To finish off repeat step 8 until you have 2 stitches only on one arm. Then loop the first of the two stitches over the second one and off your arm.

13. Repeat step 12, adding one more stitch at a time to the other arm.

14. When you are down to one single stitch, this gets tied off with the working wool.

15. Now you have two options, cut off the tail and use or you can join both ends of the scarf together to make an infinity scarf that you can loop around your neck.

Watch the YouTube video for full instructions:

Try it out and let me know how you go. Please add comment below.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

32 Comments

- - mom443421 said
  - 08 Jan 2024
    3:58 pm
It looks great, but I don’t think I’d manage to get it to look like that…haha

- - meedee said
  - 08 Sep 2021
    10:43 am
interesting but sure as eggs …once I got all that over my arm there would be some sort of emergency that i would ahve to deal with.

- - mom81879 said
  - 27 Nov 2019
    1:25 pm
It looks a bit complicated, but I think if I try and do it, it won’t take long to work out. The end result is impressive!

- - ella12 said
  - 07 Sep 2016
    4:25 pm
Very inventive and creative and different.

- - mom94125 said
  - 01 Sep 2016
    9:21 pm
i reckon that the infinity scarf would be fun. this is a novel and fun idea to play around with

- - Melissa89 said
  - 29 Jul 2016
    11:21 am
I have always wanted to do this!

- - mom70876 said
  - 06 Jul 2016
    11:47 pm
That looks complicated… i’m sure it’s 30 minutes when you’re “experienced” at it

- - sharna_booth_weinrowski said
  - 11 Apr 2016
    12:55 pm
oh if only i could do this! IT ended up as a ball of mess!

- - mom71670 said
  - 31 Mar 2016
    8:17 pm
Very clever. I just don’t have the patience for knitting I might have to try this.

- - Some_Toss said
  - 26 Mar 2016
    12:31 pm
This is so clever! Thanks for sharing.

- - mom67623 said
  - 25 Mar 2016
    6:56 am
what a fantastic idea, have to give it a go as cooler weather will soon be here.If your feet and neck are warm then it brings heat to whole body thank you

- - youngoldlady said
  - 20 Mar 2016
    1:19 pm
Maybe one for when no children are around, could get messy.

- - mom81879 said
  - 14 Mar 2016
    3:23 pm
Oh wow! This is stunning and yet so easy to make. Not sure it would only take me 30 minutes, but it looks like fun to knit

- - katelt said
  - 29 Feb 2016
    9:39 pm
So kind of like a cross between finger knitting and using your arm as a knitting needle…clever!

- - KrysGrace said
  - 27 Feb 2016
    12:48 pm
Wow. That is creative. Must give it a go

- - serotonin said
  - 26 Feb 2016
    4:48 pm
Interesting! Didn’t realise such a thing was possible. I think it will take me longer than 30 minutes to understand how to do it, but would be great to know!

- - mom134803 said
  - 26 Feb 2016
    3:50 am
Nice idea ! However I would prefer to knit on needles. When you have thick wool and thick needles you can knit a scarf on needles in 30 minutes as well… And when you need to go to the toillet half way time it’s easier 🙂
- mom103920 replied
  
  27 Feb 2016 , 11:42 am
  I was thinking the same! Imagine being most of the way through and you hear, “Muuuumy, time to wipe my bottom please!” I love the look of this scarf using your arm instead of needles. My older kids are in to finger knitting, so I can imagine them having a go at this too.
- - mom117082 said
  - 25 Feb 2016
    10:19 pm
Great looking scarf hope I’ll be able 2 make one keep on knitting
sam1949@rogers.com

- - mom117082 said
  - 25 Feb 2016
    10:05 pm
I watch your video on making a scarf without knitting needles very interesting hope I’ll be able 2 do one great job keep on knitting
sam1949@rogers.com

- - Nas01 said
  - 25 Feb 2016
    1:11 pm
Omg, great idea but I think it wild take me 30 days to get the instructions right.