Headbands

This is Knitwise Designs “Triple Crowner” headband. Linda Courtney, the designer behind Knitwise, explains that her models (and inspiration) for this design, are both “Triple Crowners.” That means they’ve thru-hiked all three of America’s long distance trails: The Appalachian Trail, The Pacific Crest Trail, and The Continental Divide Trail. In case you’re too tired to even think about how much hiking that is, it’s 7,900 miles!

Here’s Linda’s models, the Triple Crowners themselves, showing off how this design suits both men and women.

Even if you’re no hiker, but just a person with cold ears, this design works well. Glasshead looks good in it and she never even gets out of the house.

I knit mine in Stonehedge Fiber Shepherd’s Wool worsted. Here’s a closer look.

Those with a sharp cable eye will see that the design includes triple crossed cables. They are worked with two cable needles and are great fun to knit.

Keeping a headband in a coat pocket can be just the ticket to stay toasty when chilly winds catch you unawares.

These next headbands arose out of my interest in trying Plymouth Yarn’s Stained Glazz. It’s an Aran weight, put up in 99 yard skeins. That’s perfect for a headband. It’s 51% wool, 49% acrylic. Vanessa Ewing’s freebie pattern, delightfully named the “F621 Headband,” was designed for Stained Glazz.

The yarn worked up well.

I’m not sure why Glasshead insists on wearing her headbands so that her ear lobes hang out. Maybe she expects to sport a pair of earrings someday and doesn’t want them to catch?  Anyway, these wide headbands will keep heads cozy. And if the heads have ponytails, the ponytails can fly free.

Here’s another look.

F621 is an excellent easy lace, easy cable handband. The ribbons of color distract from the  patterning, but I still like the final products.

Baah Savannah

This is Baah Savannah. It’s an interesting hand-dyed yarn that forced itself upon me while I was shopping for some knitting needles at Have You Any Wool?, one of my local yarn shops.

In fact, two Savannahs eventually forced themselves upon me, Venom (above) and Tuxedo (below).

The space-dyed and speckled version of Savannah isn’t the easiest Savannah to find. All Savannah is a next-to-skln blend of 80% merino wool, 10% nylon, and 10% goat cashmere. The hank is pricey, but it’s also 400 yards of fingering-weight luxury.

This is the yarn’s special planned pooling trick, worked up in the one-row “Diamond in the Rough” pattern presently available only where the yarn is sold:

Kind of amazing don’t you think?

The trick is hardly a trick at all. You take out a mortgage and buy the skein of yarn. Well, a refinance will be enough. Actually, in my judgment the yarn is completely worth the $32-35 you’ll pay for it. Once you’ve got the yarn in hand, and the “Diamond in the Rough” scarf pattern, you use a long-tail cast on starting the slip knot where a color change occurs. Easy peasy.

Then sit back and watch the yarn do its thing.

I worked on my scarves while passengering on a few long car rides. A one-row pattern, a mistake-rib stitch, could get a little boring. But a knitters’ eyeballs are being entertained by the pooling, so a knitters’ brain stays relatively alert to the task. One skein ended up 5.5 inches wide and 66 inches long.

Here’s how my Tuxedo colorway worked up. We photographed it hot off the needles after I completed it on Christmas Day and gifted it immediately (and unwrapped).

Now I’m daydreaming about whether I may have some non-Savannah space-dyed yarn that would pool in an interesting way, using this same pattern.