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 feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too.

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin.

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed.

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube.

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle.

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).

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