Braided Headband Knitting Pattern

The best way to learn any new skill in knitting is to try it on a small project, preferably something that doesn’t have to be perfect in terms of size.

I love using scarves as learning projects, but if you want something a little smaller you can try a washcloth. Or if you’d rather make something you can wear even as you’re learning new skills, headbands and earwarmers are great projects for that.

These little projects don’t take a lot of yarn or time to knit. They don’t have to fit exactly perfectly because they can stretch (and heads come in lots of different sizes). And they give you a little canvas to play with stitch patterns, colorwork and other kinds of knitting techniques.

In this case, a little cable.

The braided headband pattern from Mirella Moments uses worsted weight yarn and has a braided cable running down the middle. There are smaller cables on each side and a bit of garter stitch edging to hold it all together. The little side cables are so small you can even use them to practice working cables without a cable needle.

The pattern comes in one size but should fit a variety of heads. If you want to make it smaller or larger you can just subtract or add length as you go. The project is knit flat and seamed into a circle when the knitting is done.

Once you get the hang of it, this pattern would make a great gift knit, or you could donate them to charity in the winter months.

You can grab the free pattern from Mirella Moments.

Looking for more easy cable knitting patterns? I love this cable knit hat as a beginner cable project, or you can check out my collection of cable knitting patterns to boost your skills.

[Photo: Mirella Moments]

Looking for more Knitted Headband Patterns? Check these patterns out on Etsy. Headbands are a great gift idea as they knit up fast and are well received by friends and family. Everyone loves wearing Knit headbands right? Check out this free knitted Autumn Ear Warmer headband on our sister site.

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

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