Knit Scrunchie Tutorial
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Raise your hand if you’re totally into scrunchies! Have you knit a scrunchie yet? I’m old enough to have been into scrunchies the first time around, and some of my kids are loving them now. Of course, I had to figure out how to make my own. It’s just what I do.
It turns out that scrunchies are super fast and fun to knit. So far, I’ve made some for my 3 daughters, my niece, and my 2 sisters. They were perfect stocking stuffers at Christmas! So far I’ve made a dozen and I’m happy with the technique. Here’s a tutorial showing how I make a knit scrunchie. I added a little video at the end if you need help visualizing how I explained the bind-off. However, if you’re familiar with the three-needle bind-off you’ll recognize this modified version. It gives you a nice clean edge all around your scrunchie.
Yarn
For the knit scrunchie in this tutorial, I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted. It’s on the lighter side for a worsted weight yarn and I think it worked perfectly. It doesn’t take much yarn to knit a scrunchie. I used leftovers from my Car Eyes Lightning Mc Queen hat for this one, and even smaller random bits of yarn for the other eleven! If you’ve knit my Inanna pocket shawl and have leftover Fisherman’s Wool, it’s also the perfect weight for scrunchies. I think a fingering weight scrunchie would be nice, but I’m not ready to commit the time to it right now. Currently, I can make a scrunchie start to finish in about an hour. That’s exactly how much time I like to spend on a fun little project, so I’ll stick with it.
If you like the other knit hair ties in the photo above, check back with me. I’m working on a tutorial for those, as well.
How to Knit a Scrunchie
Simple step-by-step instructions to knit a scrunchie.
Materials
- worsted weight yarn, hair tie
Tools
- US 7 16-inch circular needles, one extra US 7 needle, stitch marker, yarn needle
Instructions
With circular needles and the knitted cast-on, cast on 75 stitches.
Join to knit in the round, placing a marker at the beginning of the round. It's going to be a stretch to fit the stitches all the way around the needle at first, but you can do it.
Once you've knit the first round, the stitches should fit easily on your needle.
Knit 20 rounds.
Turn the work inside-out by pushing the knitting through the center.
Gather the knitted tube and put the hair tie around the middle.
Use the extra needle as your right-hand needle while binding off. Insert right-hand needle in first cast-on stitch, then knit first stitch on left-hand needle. Pass extra stitch on right-hand needle over the stitch you just knit and off the needle.
Insert right-hand needle into next cast-on stitch, then knit the next stitch on your left-hand needle.
You now have 3 stitches on the right-hand needle. Pass the other 2 stitches over the stitch you just knit, and off the needle. 
Repeat the last two steps until all stitches are bound off and scrunchie is completely closed. Weave in ends.
Notes
You'll notice the bind-off is the same as a 3-needle bind-off, except that you're picking up each cast-on stitch as you come to it rather than having them on a third needle.
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