Snow, Snuggles and Scrunchies

It kept snowing yesterday until mid-evening then tapered, leaving a soft carpet world behind. The streets stayed really clear until the sun set and then got icy in patches. The neighborhood roads of course got blanketed and ignored by the salt trucks leaving us all to fend for ourselves. It's lovely, the dogs had a blast out in it yesterday, I don't need to be anywhere today and so I'm enjoying what will be the one snow I wanted for this season. By next weekend temperatures are supposed to be almost 60, but what do those meteorologists know anyway? It's a science that calls for a lot of anticipating and contains enormous opportunity for miscalculation, somewhat like the science of medicine. Hey, why do you think it reads on your doctor's office door "practicing medicine"? LOL

Last night I sat up watching a bit of t.v. and later, listening to The Sound and The Fury on cd, crocheting on my Skipping Stones afghan. I layered that by switching over to scrunchies and a scarf for variation. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, managing to come up with two scrunchie patterns. I'm not sure that I can say they're original because I haven't done a check yet. I didn't use anyone else's idea though so if they aren't it's purely coincidental. I am going to post the patterns here with my pictures for now. I hope you all like them.

This purple one should look familiar, it's made with leftover yarn from the slipper project I posted yesterday. This one is from the pattern Super Fast & Easy Scrunchie. I like this scrunchie because it can be made with any type of yarn and an appropriately sized hook. Works up quickly and looks great. I'm doing these for a craft fair a friend and I are setting up in this year. We are focusing on simple patterns, scrunchies, scarves, small bags, shawls, slippers and ponchos because we think they will sell well at this craft fair. It's held yearly, is well known and attended, hosted by one of the local high schools. We figure items like these will appeal to all the students that attend and to a lot of other people who are Christmas shopping. In addition to items like these we plan on adding in whatever items we crochet this year that aren't tagged for ourselves, or for presents for others. I have a couple items already that I plan on putting in there.

This next scrunchie came about because I had just this little snippet of colorful yarn left from a ball that I'd already used part of in making the 2+1 scarf pattern I created. It was a ball that was found in a bag of yarn purchased at a local thrift store and I really love the colors. Would love to know what type of yarn it is and if it is still available to purchase but I suppose that will remain a mystery. By the way, if you happen to recognize the yarn, please, please, pretty please, contact me and let me know what it is.

Cross Over Scrunchie - So called because of the technique used to make it.

Materials needed: Small amounts of any leftover yarn, Size H hook, coated ponytail band.

Sl st onto band, sc around the band until it's fairly full making sure to end with an even number of stitches. Sl st into the 1st sc. Ch 3, trc into back of band between 1st and 2nd sc on band. Trc between 3rd and 4th sc on front band. Continue working trc's, switching back and forth between the back and front of the band, moving in progression around the band (for instance, the next trc would go in the back of the band between the 5th and 6th sc and the next trc from there would go in the front between the 7th and 8th sc) until you come to the ch 3 at the beginning. Sl st into the 3rd chain. Snip and weave in tails.

The third scrunchie is called the Swirly Scrunchie. It's made using Lion Brand Chenille in black. The color makes it hard to see details in the picture but I've tried to get as much detail as I can.

Swirly Scrunchie
Materials Needed: small amount of chenille yarn, size I hook, coated ponytail band.

R 1: Sl st onto hairband. Sc around band making sure to end with an odd number of sc's. Sl stitch into the 1st sc on band.
R 2: Ch 1, sc in 1st sc, *ch 3, sk 1 sc, sc into next sc*. Repeat from * to * around. There should be one stitch left on the band from round 1 that is neither skipped over nor has a sc worked in it.
R 3: *Ch 3, sc into skipped st on R 2* (the open stitch under the ch 3) in front of the hairband. Repeat from * to * around band.
R 4: Ch 3, sc into the left over sc from R 2 on the band, ch 3, sc in each sc at beginning and end of each loop. Alternate each sc from front to back around the hairband, working the stitch into the sc's from R 2 and R3. This places a stitch into the front of the sc's from R2 and the back of the sc's from R3 between the two rows and fills in, creating three rows of chain threes in a swirly effect.

I hope the directions are clear, if not please feel free to email me and I'll try to explain. Remember, I'm a newbie at pattern writing and so it's all a learning experience for me.