Knit a Headband Inlaid with Diamonds

Little projects like headbands are the perfect way to learn new knitting techniques or refresh your memory if it’s been a while sine you’ve worked with a particular knitting technique. If you’re new to stranded knitting, or you just want to play with colorwork on a little project, check out the Inlaid Diamonds Headband by Trissa Weidenaar.

This little headband has ribbing on the ends in each of the main colors, and then uses one color as the background with cascading rounds of diamonds. The design and its name are inspired by a jewelry used to set stones into silver jewelry.

The pattern comes in a single size that can fit a large child/teen to average adult, fitting a little more snuggly on the grownup. It calls for sport weight yarn in two contrasting colors to make the diamonds pop. You could try knitting it with a larger needle to make it a little bigger if you have a larger head or just don’t want it to be too tight when you wear it.

You can grab the pattern from Ravelry.

Looking for more cute headband patterns for learning new skills or just to knit for fun? Reminder that knit headbands are a great easy and relatively quick gift idea if you want to get a jump on your holiday knitting!

Easy headband knitting patterns is a good roundup of beginner level or otherwise quick knitting projects
Heartbreaker earwarmer uses super bulky yarn and slipped stitches that look like hearts
Sunny headband is an easy first cable knitting pattern
Northwind is a great one if you want to try out brioche knitting
You can also find a bunch of great knitting patterns for headbands and ear warmers on Etsy

If you have a favorite headband knitting pattern I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Daniel DeVries for Taproot Magazine]

There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers.

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects.

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge.

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more.

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner.

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is.

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you.

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who.

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.

Have you read?