Knit an Easy Twisted Headband, By Hand or Machine

I love knitting headbands, maybe more than I love wearing knit headbands, but I’m trying to get them into the rotation more often this year.

Knit headbands are generally pretty quick and easy to knit, they don’t take a lot of yarn, and they can be great stash-busting projects. They’re also effective at keeping your hair out of your face and making a messy hair day a little bit better.

I was recently cleaning up some yarn leftovers and made this two-toned twisted headband knitting pattern.

The twisted headband look is super popular and it’s really easy to do.

I made a wider version a couple of years ago using a circular knitting machine, so if you want your headband in a hurry, that’s always an option, too. And while this one is wide and the one I knit by hand is narrower, you can make a hand-knit version wider if you like by casting on more stitches. You can also make a narrower one on a knitting machine if you have a 22-pin machine. I haven’t tried that yet but I think it would be a great size for summer.

And once you know the basics of the twist, you can make all sorts of variations on this headband. Add stripes instead of doing color blocking. Make it in sock yarn instead of worsted weight. Throw in a simple stitch pattern like moss stitch. If you use a stitch pattern that doesn’t curl and looks good on both sides, you don’t even have to start with a tube, just knit it flat.

And if you don’t like the twist, or don’t always want a twisted version, just sew the ends together flat.

You get the idea. I feel like there are going to be a lot more knit headbands in my summer plans. I’d love to know if you knit them or if I’ve inspired you to try!

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I don’t even know what to say about this amazing knitting pattern. The Bestiary Scarf from Monstra & Mirabilia is so full of details it’s a little intimidating to talk about.

It features, as the designer describes it, an “artistic encyclopaedia of Western mythical creatures.”

The pattern includes a dragon, harpy, Medusa, chimaera, centauress, phoneix, kraken, mermaid, sew serpent, cyclops, wyvern, Pegasus, amphiptere and amphibaena. (It’s a good thing there’s a photo of the proejct with everything labelled because I definitely didn’t know the names for everything.) It’s also designed like a landscape, with water and land creatures toward the bottom ends and sky creatures toward the top.

The dragon is at the center and is worked sideways so it will show as upright when you wear it.

The scarf is worked in double knitting, so the colorwork appears in the opposite colors on the other side.

It’s worked in light fingering weight yarn (on size 0 US or 2mm knitting needles) and the colorwork is shown in charts. The pattern also includes some video tutorials and written instructions to help you along. The designer says the pattern is for intermediate knitters, and “advanced beginners may succeed with patience and the help of the video tutorials.”

When I was an advanced beginner this kind of a pattern would have brought me to tears, but if you love a challenge, and a project that you’ll wear and get tons of astonished reactions every time, this is the project for you. And of course if you have a few double knitting projects under your belt and are comfortable reading charts, this project shouldn’t be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s fast. But lots of great things take time, and that’s never stopped us before, right?

You can get a copy of this pattern from Monstra & Mirabilia on Ravelry.

[Photo: Monstra & Mirabilia ]

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