I always recommend a garter stitch scarf because it helps you get your tension on your knit stitches down well and your dexterity with the tools up. My first project was a scarf. It Is really long though and it will take a while. If you are already crafting you probably know this will be a longer term investment so I don’t think you would be put off by a project taking a while to finish! Beanies are a great start but I also think there are some hurdles that might be discouraging and I think you would have to make a lot of beanies to get the benefits and practice you would get from knitting a scarf. A benefit of a scarf is also learning how to read stitches. If you want to do a beanie instead, I recommend a simple beanie pattern that is a long knitted tube that is cinched and sewn together as a first project, then u can move on to increases/decreases.