Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Are You Ready for Some Football Knitting?

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scoreboard knitalongI imagine there are lots of knitters who are football fans, or who live with football fans and end up spending a lot of time this time of year watching football.

It either of those is you, designer Michelle Hunter and Skacel have a great project for you. Known as the Scoreboard Knitalong, the project takes all of football season to knit a Stockinette Stitch loop cowl (the official pattern will be released Sept. 3), with each round representing a point scored in a game.

You work it in your team colors, choose one color to represent your team and the other to represent the opponent. Then you work one round for each point (and optional third color breaks up the stripes between games).

The chosen yarn is HiKoo Simplicity, a superwash merino/acrylic/nylon blend that comes in more than 60 solid colors (some suggestions for professional and a few college team color combinations can be found on the supplies page). It’s worked on size 7 US (4.5 mm) circular needles.

This project sounds like a lot of fun and will give you something to do if you’re going to be watching all the games anyway. Just make sure you have another project at the ready for those low-scoring times.

Does this sound like a project you’d like to do? Are you a football fan or is someone else in your household? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Scoreboard KAL.]

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Summer Headband Knitting Patterns

Some knitters have trouble coming up with projects they can both knit and wear when it’s warm outside. Especially if you’re not ready for garments (thought tank tops and summer tops are great first garment projects!) it might seem like there’s nothing to do when it’s hot outside.

One way to remedy this situation is by knitting headbands. Headbands are great any time of year to keep hair out of your face and make you look a little more pulled together without any effort. Wider headbands double as ear warmers when it gets colder, but skinnier ones are great throughout the year.

A couple of great examples are from designer Elly Donner, who has a set of headband knitting patterns on Ravelry you can buy individually or as an ebook. Homebody, shown here, is worked in garter stitch (the ties are crocheted but you could also use I-cord), while Slipstream uses slipped stitches and garter ridges, and Sounds of Spring has little cables. The patterns use DK weight yarn and are a great way to use a little leftover yarn from another project.

I also recently came across the lovely Plush Braided Headband by Yevgeniya Li. A free pattern on Ravelry, this wider design is covered in lush cables for a sleek and fancy look. It uses worsted weight yarn and you can customize the length for a perfect fit.

Celeste Knitwear’s Spikelet is a simple twisted headband with columns of eyelet lace to keep it from being too heavy. It’s worked flat and sewn together to make the twist, and uses DK weight yarn. It has three sizes available.

This skinny lace headband from Lusi Knits is another cute choice. It calls for fine weight cotton yarn, but you could use heavier yarn if you have it on hand to make a wider headband (or use any fine yarn you have available). It uses ties to customize the fit.

And if you want to go super basic but still really cute, try the easy ring headband from Lulu Pattern. The sample is knit pretty wide, but you could make a narrower version if you want, and the little ring turns it from a plain loop into a bow with very little extra work. It calls for worsted weight yarn but you could also use whatever weight you like for this one to change up the look and size.