How to Knit Ruffles

Adding ruffle to knitted items is easy.

Whether its rows of narrow ruffles across the front of a sweater, a deep, undulating ruffle at the bottom of a skirt, or a delicate ruffle to embellish the top of a sock or edge of a blanket; ruffles add texture and feminine detail to any project. Adding a ruffle to a sewing project is a simple matter of attaching a gathered strip of fabric, but in knitting you need to know how to add volume to your knitting to create the same gathered effect from scratch. Either direction, top down or bottom up, if you know how to decrease and increase, you can easily add a ruffle to any knitting project.

Things You'll Need

• Knitting needles

Instructions

Bottom Up

1. Cast on twice the number of stitches that you want to end with. For example, if your sweater pattern calls for 156 stitches at the bottom edge, and you are knitting it from the bottom up, cast on 312 stitches.

2. Knit in pattern to the depth of the ruffle. Make sure to end on a wrong-side row.

3. Knit two stitches together for the entire row. You now have half the number of stitches.

4. Continue with the project.

Top Down

1. Increase in every stitch on the row to double the amount of stitches. You can use whatever kind of increase you want.

2. Knit in pattern to the depth of the ruffle. End on a wrong-side row.

3. Cast off loosely.

Tips & Warnings

• For a tighter ruffle, add more stitches. For a looser ruffle, increase fewer stitches. Try knitting a ruffled scarf by casting on 200 stitches, then doubling the number of stitches every two or three rows, until the scarf is as wide and you desire. Then cast off.

References

• Knitting Daily: Ruffles for Summer!
• Washington Post: Knit a Spiral Scarf

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish