Wednesday 9 February 2011

Braided Headband and A Winner!

First things first, the winner of the Buttons giveaway as chosen by a random number generator is..... Sauceyjill! She wrote: "Love that cowl! And that lavender is awesome! Pretty! I'm also excited about your aran sweater! Who doesn't love a good cable pattern?!"

Yay! Congrats Jill!

Braid detail

I made myself this lovely Anthropology inspired plaited head wrap last week, but I just call it my braided headband. I love a good braid, so when I saw this free pattern I downloaded it immediately. It as perfect timing as I stumbled upon it right after my favorite ear-muffs broke. Sometimes in the winter, when I have my hair in a ponytail or in a bun, as I tend to do, wearing a hat is just not that practical, but I need to keep my ears warm! So, I used to turn to my ear-muffs, but now that those are gone I needed a new solution. The headband is it!

Braided headband

I looked at a couple of different braided headbands before officially settling on this one. There are several out there that use a braid-style cable to achieve a similar look, but what really drew me to this pattern is that it is actually braided! The construction is really interesting. You knit a long tube, then do some looping and weaving, graft the ends together and the result is a continuous braid!

Back

This project was awesome. It took me a while (and I mean a long while!) to get the hang of the braided construction. In the end I abandoned the directions and just braided it the way that came naturally to me and it worked out great. I grafted the ends together and now it is totally seamless, like the most awesome mobius ever. I love it and it is super warm.
I knit mine on 5mm instead of the recommended 6mm needles, I did it on dpn’s and it was a bit fiddly but nothing I couldn’t handle. I CO 18 sts to make up for the smaller sized needles. It took more yarn then I expected, nearly half a skein in total. 
I also steam blocked my long tube before braiding in hopes that the braid would lay flatter on my head, and it worked. Love it! I think I'll make one in thinner yarn, maybe fingering weight, to wear as a regular headband to keep my hair out of my face. 
My mom took these FO shots for me yesterday and somehow managed to get this totally wild, super freaky faceless shot. This has not been photoshopped, after she took the picture and we saw this on the monitor we were both a little disturbed...
Awesome/super freaky faceless shot... thanks mom!

Isn't that weird!? At least the braid looks good.