Platformnine Designs

For Christmas I made a lot of Swatch Bangles for the girls in my family. I thought to myself, ‘what a clever and useful pattern’ - especially since these days I’m living vicariously paycheck to paycheck.

Then I looked at my wardrobe and wondered what else I could recycle and refresh. I saw my impressive collection of headbands hanging by my mirror and the lightbulb went off in my head and I set to work figuring out how to make high fashion headbands for way less (free, in fact, if you have some stash yarn). And just like the swatch bangles, when you get tired of a certain design on one of your headbands, just rip out the seam and make a new design! Not only that, but the headbands I used for this pattern was a headband that used to give me major headaches, and now that it’s got a headband swatch around it, it’s much more comfortable and doesn’t give me a headache anymore! (Not to mention it matches a lot more of my outfits since it’s not black with white polka dots anymore :P) Now, I know the frigid temperatures are coming to an end and spring is upon us, so a knitted headband isn’t in everyone’s best interest - but they make fantastic gifts and work up quite quickly! Get a head start on your holiday presents for next year! So grab your stash yarn and do up your headbands, Blair Waldorf style!

Life Lessons, The Recession, and Healthy Recycling

Materials

• Headbands, any size. For very thin headbands (my thin one is 2.5cm), the increases and decreases won’t be necessary - just swatch and seam together!
• Yarn (preferably left over, but hey if you want to go out and buy a whole new skein of yarn for this that’s your choice); I used various weights. Thinner headbands should be covered in Fingering - DK or Light Worsted. Thicker headbands you can go nuts with.
• Short straights or long DPNs in the size that your yarn selection suggests
• Measuring tape (to determine how many stitches you’ll need)
• Stitch Markers (or safety pins, whatever suits your fancy) to mark increases and decreases
• Needle to sew a seam with
• Your imagination!

Directions

Step 1
Measure the thickest/widest and thinnest (the parts that go behind your ears) parts of your headband. This is how wide you’re going to want your work to be and will help you determine how many stitches you’re going to need. To determine the number of stitches you need, find how many stitches per inch your yarn gets.

Then measure the length of your headband from tip-to-tip to determine how long your swatch needs to be.

Thin; 2.5cm (1in)


Standard; 4cm (1.6in), 7.5cm (3in)



Large; 5cm (2in), 10.5cm (4.1in)

Step 2
For this pattern I’m only going to show you how I did my standard sized headband.

Start knitting, increase every inch for the Standard sized headbands and every half inch for Large sized headbands. When your work reaches the proper width of your headband, knit for about 5-6” (depending on the size of your headband), then begin decreasing every inch for Standard sized headbands and every half inch for Large sized headbands. Place your stitch markers on each increase row to keep track of your increases. I increased and decreased 5 times on the standard size headband.

For increases and decreases:
K1, Increase (pick your favorite one, I like K1FB), Knit in pattern, Increase, K1
K1, Decrease (pick your favorite one, I like K2TOG), Knit in pattern, Decrease, K1

Cable Pattern that I used:
*K5, Slip 4 to cable needle, K4, K4 from cable needle, K5* - Repeat from * every 10 rows.





Step 3
When your work measures the length of your headband from tip to tip, bind off on a wrong-side row. Make sure you leave a long tail to sew the seam with. Lay your work over your headband (like I’ve done in the pictures above) and start sewing with the cast-on tail from your cast on edge. I do this so that I don’t have as much yarn to weave in, and so that I don’t end up with any scrap yarn! When you can’t sew any further, weave in the end or stuff the left over down into the tube you’re making. Don’t worry about making a perfect or invisible seam, unless you want to, because no one will see the seam! Then start to sew the seam from the bind-off edge. When you reach the first seam you made, over lap your sewing a bit to secure it together. Rearrange your work so that the design is centered. Then wear as a fashionable accessory and enjoy!





Finished look:

Enjoy and be stylish!