How Much Yarn for a Scarf? Yardage Estimates by Yarn Weight

For a standard adult scarf, about 7 in (18 cm) wide and 65 in (165 cm) long in garter stitch, plan on roughly 250-350 yd (230-320 m) of worsted-weight yarn. Thicker yarn needs fewer yards and thinner yarn needs more. Every figure here is an estimate, because the real amount depends on your gauge, your stitch pattern and the exact size you knit, but a good estimate is enough to buy the right number of skeins.

Typical yardage by yarn weight

These ranges are for a 7 x 65 in scarf in garter stitch at a normal scarf gauge.

Yarn weight	Estimated yardage	Estimated meters
Worsted (#4)	250-350 yd	230-320 m
Bulky (#5)	180-250 yd	165-230 m
Super bulky (#6)	120-180 yd	110-165 m

DK (#3) yarn is thinner than worsted, so the same scarf takes more of it; expect to go beyond the top of the worsted range. The ranges are wide because knitters differ. A loose knitter on larger needles covers more area with each yard than a tight knitter on smaller ones.

Buy by yardage, not by weight or by number of skeins. Two skeins that both weigh 100 g can hold very different lengths depending on the fiber and how thick the strand is. The yardage is printed on the label; the guide to the best yarn for scarves explains what else to read there.

Why the stitch pattern changes the amount

The ranges above assume garter stitch. Other stitches cover a different amount of area with the same yarn.

• Ribbing uses the most. Rib pulls in sideways, so you need more stitches to reach the same width, and all of those extra stitches use yarn in every row.
• Seed stitch, moss stitch and basketweave use somewhat more than garter, because the yarn travels back and forth between knit and purl stitches.
• Open fabrics, such as a thin yarn knit on large needles, use less, because each stitch covers more area.

There is no single correction factor that is right for every yarn and knitter. For a ribbed or heavily textured scarf, a reasonable planning allowance is about a quarter more than the garter estimate, and the swatch method below will give you a far better number than any rule.

Adjusting for a different size

Yarn use follows the area of the fabric: width multiplied by length. A 7 x 65 in scarf covers 455 square inches. To scale an estimate, divide the new area by 455 and multiply the yardage by the result.

Scarf size	Area	Compared with 7 x 65 in	Worsted estimate in garter
Child, 5 x 40 in	200 sq in	about 0.44 times	roughly 110-155 yd (100-140 m)
Standard, 7 x 65 in	455 sq in	1 time	roughly 250-350 yd (230-320 m)
Wide and long, 10 x 80 in	800 sq in	about 1.76 times	roughly 440-615 yd (400-560 m)

The jump from standard to wide and long catches people out: three extra inches of width and fifteen of length come close to doubling the yarn. If you are still deciding on dimensions, the scarf width and length guide covers the common sizes.

The weigh-your-swatch method

The most accurate estimate comes from your own knitting. You need a swatch in the yarn, needles and stitch pattern of the scarf, a ruler, and a kitchen scale that reads in grams.

1. Measure the swatch. Multiply its width by its height to get the area. A swatch 6 in wide and 6 in tall is 36 square inches.
2. Weigh it. Say it weighs 10 g, including its cast-on and bind-off edges.
3. Find grams per square inch. 10 divided by 36 is about 0.278 g per square inch.
4. Multiply by the scarf’s area. For 7 x 65 in, that is 455 x 0.278, which is about 126 g.
5. Convert grams to yards using the label. If the label says 220 yd (201 m) per 100 g, the yarn runs 2.2 yd per gram. 126 x 2.2 is about 278 yd (254 m).
6. Add a margin of 10 to 15 percent. Ten percent more than 278 is about 306 yd, so two 220 yd skeins, 440 yd in total, cover the scarf comfortably.

A bigger swatch gives a better answer. Most kitchen scales read to the nearest gram, and one gram is a tenth of a 10 g swatch, so a small rounding error is multiplied across the whole scarf. If you are going to knit a gauge swatch anyway, make it generous and use it for both jobs.

What else uses yarn

The body of the scarf is not the only thing that uses yarn. Allow for these too:

• The bind-off. Leave a strand about 4 times the scarf width to bind off. For a 7 in scarf that is 4 x 7 = 28 in (71 cm).
• Tails. Each end you weave in should be at least 6 in (15 cm) long, and every new skein or color change adds two of them.
• Fringe. Fringe is cut from the same yarn and can take a surprising amount. The guide to adding fringe to a scarf shows how to work out the amount before you cut.
• The swatch, unless you unravel it and reuse the yarn.

Buy one extra skein, from the same dye lot

Yarn is dyed in batches, and each batch gets a dye lot number printed on the label. Two skeins of the same color name from different lots can differ slightly in shade. Side by side in a scarf, that difference shows as a visible line where one skein ends and the next begins.

For that reason, buy everything you need at once and check that the lot numbers match. If your estimate lands close to a whole number of skeins, buy one more. Running out a few inches from the end, and then finding the lot is sold out, is a worse outcome than having a spare skein.

If you would rather let the yarn decide the size, turn the problem around: buy a single generous skein and knit until it is nearly gone. The one-skein scarf shows how to choose a width so the length works out.