Speckled Knit Headband

Happy New Year! One of my 2018 resolutions is to make one blog post for each month – here’s to a year of more crafting! About a month after finishing my hat, Becky and I went to a yarn store and I fell in love with lots of yarn, but ultimately choose one that immediately reminded me of retro-skiing inspiring me to make a headband.

Now that I completely forgot everything my first project taught me, (I need less time between projects!) Google and YouTube came in handy to review how to do the Long Tail Cast-on and a Purl stitch.

Wanting to try something new, I attempted to use two needles instead of knitting in the round. Becky had me using 2” needles (so small!!) making it difficult for me to tell what stitch I had just completed. I got through two rows and had already messed up entirely. Disappointed, I scrapped it and started over on a set of 5” needles in the round. I cast on an even 100 stitches then proceeded with a two knit, two purl pattern all the way around.

Pre-Flight to Michigan

Post-Flight to Michigan

Traveling home to Michigan for the holidays provided lots of time for me to work (yay red eye flights!).

I finished it up at home and my mom looked up a method to bind it off. Using this method I knit or purled (whichever I was on) two stitches from my left needle to my right. Then I took the back stitch and looped it over the first stitch leaving only one stitch on my right needle. Then I knit or purl another stitch, take the back stitch and drop it off – continuing this pattern all the way around until it was complete. But when I tried it on – it didn’t fit! My bind off was not stretchy like my long-tail cast on. Sigh.

Try two. I undid my bind off, a tedious process that resulted in some dropped stitches (which I then had to look up how to correct). Searching for a new method for a stretchy bind off, I found one on the blog Very Pink. Doing my best to follow the directions, I started by knitting two stitches onto my right needle. Then I inserted my left needle through the back of the ones I just knit and took my yarn and wrapped between my needles like a regular stitch, turning my two stitches into one. I repeated this process all the way around. Tried it on, moment of truth….it worked!