Knitters/crocheters. Could a newbie do this? Help needed!

[PeriManilow]

I have never made anything in my life but my DD wants a stripey scarf for Christmas and I was thinking I could attempt to make one?

She wants it alternating lilac and purple.

Is knitting or crocheting easier?

Anyone know of a video tutorial for a striped scarf?

What do I need? Would chunky wool be easier?

Help! 🤣

Should be easy in knitting. Do a practice scarf of 10 stitches and 4 rows to learn and then do the real thing.

Here's an easy tutorial, it's American but knitting terms are almost the same both sides of the Atlantic, unlike crochet. It's easy to vary the width of the stripes, how many colours etc, by just changing yarn (wool) sooner/later than in the pattern.

Chunky wool is much faster, but double knitting or aran weight (thickness) yarn is probably easier for a beginner to learn with. Like everything though, favourite yarn thickness down to personal preference. Do you have a friend or relative who knits and might be willing to loan needles and give you some spare yarn, so you can try different types of wool.

Have fun!

It would be easier to use a variegated ball of wool, rather than doing solid stripes. You'd have to keep changing the wool every few rows and as a novice, it might be more of a PITA than just using a continuous ball. Depending on how quickly the colour changes, it might still provide a stripe effect anyways.

In general, a thicker wool and needle is easier as a newbie. I've never used these companies for yarn, but to give you an idea of what I mean by the variegated purple yarn:
https://www.woolbox.co.uk/emu-butterfly-batik-dk-yarn-100-grm-ball.html?ps=ODE3PTM2NjQ1&srsltid=AU7gw4VaYLwKlma_HIYsCsxADGVQD0-nsS8qKrb4WigJ8SMrKr8iY3Qz0Oc#817=36645

old.theknittingnetwork.co.uk/athena-jewels-quartz-amethyst-005?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23960268843&gbraid=0AAAAADQ7F10w5mVJi3WhJRvS-kfeDp6gT&gclid=CjwKCAjw88HWBhA3EiwAo2Zd6E1cXY1bQcqY_Yi2Sp0rgzXC3VBzehk4Oo2mGot-QfAylJMHkfaRmxoCCq8QAvD_BwE

Agree with pp that self striping yarn will be easier to use. Baby yarn is softer and available in DK, Aran, Chunky

I agree about the variegated yarn unless he wants specific stripes. I also think crocheting is easier than knitting. You could basically just do a simple stitch all the way through, like trebles, and all you have to get to grips with is changing the colour after a few rows. That's really not hard.

Sirdar are doing self striping wool in Harry Potter Hogwarts colours.

Have you ever crocheted or knitted before, even as a kid?

If not, crochet will probably be easier to start with but you would need to practice before attempting a scarf as there's a bit of knack to keeping the edges straight.

Also, a scarf generally needs to be the whole height of the recipient to be able to properly wrap it round your neck, a cowl might be a better option to start with as scarfs can seem to go on forever. I've crocheted and knitted for donkeys years and find scarfs super boring as they takes ages.

If you want a warm scarf, don't go for the cheap Aldi/Home Bargains 100% acrylic yarn though, I would suggest 100% 'Yarnsmith Merino' yarn from Woolwarehouse which is super soft and superwash treated so isn't scratchy.

Yes I love Yarnsmiths merino. Lovely to work with.

Thankyou but the scarf is based off a character she likes so it has to be proper bold stripes or else it wouldn't be the same impact of present, iykwim?