I have been sort of laughing and sort of impressed at my adult daughter’s recent foray into entrepreneurship. She was visiting me, and happily sewing some scrunchies to give to friends for holiday gifts. After getting a little carried away with my fabric stash she did a social media post joking that they were breeding and she had made far more scrunchies than she had friends. One person asked if she could buy one of the extras, I told her I charged $5 each or two for $8 when the cosplay team sells them at the cons, so that’s what she quoted.

She made enough money to buy herself a new sewing machine and I spent the rest of her visit living in a sweatshop!

Which is a long way of saying scrunchies are a thing in 2020 and you should knit some.

 

This pattern is part of the #KalCornerKnitting 2020 KAL – click on the photo for more information on how to knit along and win prizes!

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Diagonal Scrunchie

Materials

Approx 100 yds/35g DK weight yarn

Knitting needles size 5/3.75mm

Straight pins

Tapestry needle

Hair elastic OR 8″ 1/4″ braided elastic (see notes on Modifications)

Gauge

Not critical for this pattern

Finished Size

6″ x 20″ before assembly

Abbreviations

K – knit

P – Purl

Ssk – slip, slip, knit – a left-leaning decrease. Slip each of next 2 sts purlwise, place them back on left hand needle, knit 2 together through back loop

St – stitch

Yo – yarn over

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Pattern

Cast on 27 sts.

Row 1 (RS): K1, *yo, k2, ssk, k2. Rep from * to last 2 sts, k2.

Row 2 and all remaining WS rows: Purl.

Row 3: K2, *yo, k2, ssk, k2. Rep from * to last st, k1.

Row 5: K3, *yo, k2, ssk, k2. Rep from * across.

Row 7: K4, *yo, k2, ssk, k2. Rep from * across noting last repeat will end with k1 not k2.

Row 9: K5, yo, *k2, ssk, k2, yo. Rep from * to last 4 sts, k2, ssk.

Row 11: K6, yo, *k2, ssk, k2, yo. Rep from * to last 3 sts, k1, ssk.

Rep Rows 1 – 12 for pattern until work measures 20″, ending with a Row 12.

Bind off.

Finishing:

This instruction is for using a hair elastic, see Modifications if you want to use 1/4″ elastic.

Using mattress stitch, sew short sides together.

Wrap sewn knit fabric around hair elastic, with wrong sides facing each other, pin into place.

Sew outer seam of scrunchie with mattress stitch. Weave in ends.

Modifications:

For a wider scrunchie, add to the cast-on in multiples of 6 stitches.

For a narrower scrunchie, remove from the cast-on in multiples of 6 stitches.

For more “scrunch”, knit a longer piece.

To use elastic instead of a commercial hair elastic, sew the knitted piece into a long tube with wrong sides together, using the mattress stitch. Thread an 8″ or so piece of 1/4″ elastic through the tube, overlap the ends, and sew them together. Then sew cast-on edge to bound off edge using the mattress stitch.

Finally if you want to use elastic but don’t want to sew it, cut the 1/4″ elastic to 11″, sew the knit tube and thread it through as above, tie the cut ends of the elastic with a double overhand knot, making sure not to tie so close to the cut ends that the knot comes undone with use.