Never Underestimate The Power Of A (Knitted) Scrunchie

This is another of the projects I worked on as part of my Crafty Christmas last year.

I remember when scrunchies were Super Cool.

And then pretty much the next day, they weren't cool anymore and they weren't seen or heard of again... until last year, when they were suddenly popular again (not that I realised that they had come back into style - I don't follow fashion trends, this is something I was told by someone by someone who does - and from the way they told me it, I clearly am not cool in their eyes - haha!).

Anyway they came back into style, and I have a family member who loves scrunchies, and was desperarately looking for some "cool", "unique" or "one-of-a-kind" scrunchies - something that stands out a little but looks incredible.

Without their knowledge, I researched ways to knit scrunchies, compiled some ideas and found some wool in their favourite colour. I won't lie to you, I found the wool in the back of my cupboard, from when I started knitting when I was younger - never used as I stopped knitting within a year of starting knitting!

I also found I had the right size double-ended needles for the wool as well (although I have no idea where they came from - I definitely hadn't got as far as using double-ended needles back when I was only young - I could barely manage knitting a row without accidentally increasing the stitches back then, let alone anything more intricate!).

This was actually my first ever project using double-ended needles, so I had to adjust to using them, how the work and keeping the tension correct when turning the "corners". But within 3-4 rows, I had go the hang of it and I found it was pretty much as easy as knitting flat (knitting onto one needle, turning the work and knitting(or purling) back across).

I completed the project in Knit (as you're knitting in the round, you don't need to do stockinette stitch), and I used the long-tail cast on method. This is a method I learned about from researching the knitting project that I started after this, and it was my first time using this method. I have to say, this is my absolute favourite way to cast on stitches at the start of a project!

To complete the project, I got a hairband and wrapped the project around it - purl side facing the band, knit side facing out, without casting off the stitches. I then sewed the cast on and "cast off" edge together - only "casting the stitches off" the needle when running the finishing yarn through the stitch. This made for a more effective and appealing look along the seam edge.

This project did however take me a few attempts to complete - not because it was complicated, or because of the adjustment time with the needles, but I had to merge and tweak a couple of patterns I had found in order to make the pattern work for me. Although re-starting is incredibly frustrating at times, especially when you restart on multiple occasions, I am so glad that I did, as it allowed me to make this as effective as it could be - none of the patterns on their own looked even nearly as good as this did.

This fuelled some ideas for projects I have since completed and cannot wait to share. There are some teasers of what this may be in some of my previous craft blogs!

Does anyone have any ideas of what it may be?

Below is a progress photo of me working on the project, along with a completed image.