DIY knitted headband and partial tutorial.

I have to say, knitting has been fun, interesting and frustrating, all at the same time! I am a beginner at it and have learned basic knit and purl from watching YouTube videos. Type in what you want to see and viola! There it is. It takes time and patience but it keeps my mind from being idle and give my hands something to do as well.

I got this idea from Pinterest and found the tutorial (with some videos) from Sara (and friend, Elisa) at Craftsnob.  Her blog is wonderful!


Now, hopefully you already know the basics...cast-on, knit, purl, bind (or cast)-off and such. If you happen to read this and do not know how to do those things, this tutorial may be a tiny bit difficult! ;) If you have questions or simply need to be pointed in the right direction of learning, by all means, let me know! I will help as much as I can!

So, on to the headband. Now that I have chopped most of my hair off, it really makes me miss my long hair and the ability to do different things with it. This piece helps me feel a little bit better!

First, you will cast on 20 stitches, which will make the headband around 4-4.5 inches wide. (I used US size 9/5.5mm needles, mainly because that's all I have for now. They seem to be a good universal size for a lot of different projects. The smaller the needle, the smaller the stitch).
You may knit every row or purl every row, your choice. Continue until the piece reaches 14-17 inches long. The tutorial on CraftSnob stated 14 inches, however, I have a somewhat large noggin' and didn't want mine to be too tight. As I reached the end of my piece, I wrapped it around my head to see how it would fit and stopped where I thought best, which was around 17 inches. (Sheesh! LOL!)

Finished piece should look similar.

Once you have that piece completed, you will fold the ends to meet in the middle, as shown below.

 Now, take a yarn needle and stitch up the ends. I wish I had more colors to make a prettier headband, but this was just a trial too, so I didn't worry about color.

Stitch doesn't have to be perfect!

 Once that is done, hold the headband and pull the string to cinch it then tie the string in a knot.

Now, you can either leave it like it is, which looks like this:

Or, you can take the extra yarn string, wrap it around and give it a more finished look, like so:

All done! Very simple beginner project to start off with. I got a tad carried away when I first started and wanted to do blankets, scarves, socks...you name it, I was going to do it! I just didn't realize how much time and effort this actually takes. So don't get frustrated! I missed a stitch in this one and didn't realize it until I had 2 more rows already done. Dang!

A dish cloth is another simple, easy, quick project to start off with as well. I was able to get one completed in a day because I was so excited to finish something!
Again, if you try it, share a photo with me! :)

xo-mk