Knit a Simple Pocket Scarf on a Circular Knitting Machine

As much as I love knitting by hand, and it will always by my favorite way to use yarn, sometimes it is fun to do something different. I have gotten into crochet more in the past couple of years, and also using circular knitting machines.

These machines are great for making quick work of big projects. I actually love doing scarves on them because you get a scarf that’s double thick, and you can keep it as a scarf or easily turn it into a loop, and it’s 100 times faster than knitting the same project by hand. This is my current favorite charity knitting project: using stash yarn and leftovers to make scarves to donate.

It might seem like this kind of project would get boring, but it hasn’t yet, because every scarf is a little different. I recently decided to change it up (and use even more yarn, which is pretty much always a goal of mine) by making a machine knit pocket scarf.

This project was made with yarn left over from a baby blanket, and while I still didn’t quite use all of it I made a nice dent in my stash. It’s worked in three colors, though you can use as many or as few as you like.

Finish off the edges then fold up the ends to make pockets as deep as you like. Mine are deep. Holding a phone would be no problem. I think holding a paperback book would be no problem, though I haven’t tried it yet!

Don’t have a circular knitting machine? No problem! Just make a long tube of knitting by hand and you can do exactly the same thing.

Get all the details on this one over at my blog, Our Daily Craft.

Do you use a circular knitting machine? I’d love to know what kinds of projects you make and what you’d like to learn about them!

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

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There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers.

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects.

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge.

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more.

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner.

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is.

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you.

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who.

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.

Have you read?