Jul 10 2006
what to do with leftover sock yarn (another free pattern)
My new haircut, which is actually a month old, is still taking getting used to. Honestly, I hate it. Detest it. I can’t keep it out of my face, and it never sits quite right. I get lots of compliments, but I think mostly people are inspired to say “ohmigod, you chopped off all your hair!” and then they have to say something nice. I guess I don’t really hate the way it looks, I mostly hate living with it. I’m just twiddling my thumbs until it grows out enough to start cutting to a consistent length, and hopefully someday I’ll have a normal haircut again. But in the meantime I’m making prodigious use of bobby pins to hold it back.
It’s nice to have a little variety, though, so this weekend over the course of a few short hours, I made up this little headband.
Lace Headband
Yarn: Schaefer Yarn’s Anne, originally used for my Pomatomus. Ended up with a nice striping effect with such a narrow band. Used up a miniscule amount of yarn; I don’t know exactly how much.
Needles: 2.25 mm for the I-cord, 2.5 mm for the band
Stitch: Vine Lace, picked out of my gal Barbara Walker’s first Treasury of Knitting Patterns; I believe this is the lace used in the Orangina top so many bloggers have made, but I haven’t ever seen that pattern, just pictures of the FOs.
Started: Saturday, July 8
Finished: Sunday, July 9
Total time: 2 hours? 3?
Pattern: So easy it doesn’t warrant pdf treatment . . .
Cast on 3 stitches. Work I-cord for 5 inches.
Working in stockinette, increase on every knit row until you have 15 stitches. (I did “Make 1″s, M1R on the right hand side [one stitch in], M1L on the left [before the last stitch], but you could just increase into the first and last stitch. Makes no diff.)
Change to slightly larger needles and begin pattern.
Row 1 (WS): Purl
Row 2: K3, yo, k2, ssk, k2tog, k2, yo, k4
Row 3: Purl
Row 4: K4, yo, k2, ssk, k2tog, k2, yo, k3
Repeat until desired length, about 20 inches, or until the band almost meets around your head while being pulled a bit. Depends on the size of your noggin.
Change to slightly smaller needles and begin decreasing.
Decrease at beginning and end of all right-side rows until you have 3 stitches left. (I ssk’d on the right hand side and k2togged on the left, one stitch in, until I had 5 stitches left. The last decrease row went like this: ssk the first two stitches, k1, k2tog the last two stitches.)
Work I-cord for about 5 inches, or to match length of I-cord at other end.
Bind off.
Draw ends into the I-cord. Block it to get it to sit flat.
Wear!
That’s a great idea! I am getting my hair massively chopped off as soon as I can get my hair salon to answer the damn phone, and I really ought to whip out a couple of these in short order. I’m not sure I have any leftover sock yarn lying around, though. Well, I bet I can dig something up. Geez, more rambling! Point is, really cute headband.
Very cute headband! I think I’ll make one for Noey! Thanks for the pattern. I’m having a hair crisis at the moment myself….can’t decide if I’m growing it out or not!
I LOVE IT! I have so many little tiny balls of sock yarn lying around — definitely not enough to even make socks for the boys. Plus, with the colors I buy, they might get teased just a LITTLE. LOL! Now I have something to do with all of it. Yay!
The last time I got my haircut, my stylist convinced me that I needed some “long sweeping bangs”. Well, if I spend a lot of time on my hair, it does look nice, and there is the potential for a rockin’ Veronica Lake look. But come on! What’s the likelihood of that? Most days I definitely need something to hold those bangs back.
Thanks!! I’ve been looking for a narrow headband - as I have a teeeny-weeny head!
Well, I have my own hair woes, though they mainly center around “will so-and-so think my hair is okay enough to be in her wedding?”
I personally love your new haircut, and I don’t have to be nice about it if I don’t want to, so you can trust me. But you’re certainly allowed to hate it–it’s on your head, after all, not mine.
After my most recent chop, I could use a headband. Thanks for the idea and pattern.
Amy
Very cool, I might have to make one for my niece…
Yay! Cute! We’ve been having insanely gross humidity for weeks–I need all the headbands I can get.
Wow, I was just thinking about what to do with some left over Lorna’s Laces and decided to look for a recipe for a good headband! You just made my week. I love the way your hair looks in it.
Hey–just wanted to let you know your link to the Orangina top doesn’t work (the link works, but it doesn’t go to a picture, it goes to a place where the picture doesn’t work). I don’t actually need to see the picture, but as one anal proofreader to another, I thought I’d give you a heads up. :)
I’m knitting this up in a candy pink and green handpainted sock yarn for a seven-year-old’s birthday. It’s coming up beautifully. Thanks for the pattern!
[…] a real quick knit. I’m going to make more. I changed the pattern a little bit. The pattern is from Pepperknits.com. I used larger needles for the lace portion to make it thicker and so the lace showed up a little […]
[…] pattern in spreadsheet form here if anyone is interested. The band is knit using the pattern for this lace headband, but I would definitely add a garter stitch edge if I made it again. It just curls too much, even […]