The February 1968 issue of Stitchcraft didn’t have any projects in it that immediately called to me, but a good friend had requested a pink headband for keeping her ears warm without wearing an entire hat, so decided to make an adaptation.

I first tried the two-colour pattern from the amazing cardigan set on the inside back cover. It’s made using a combination of stranded two-colour knitting and twisted stitches and makes a great trellis-like effect. It needs to be made in two colours to actually have an effect, though, so I switched to the fern-y lace pattern on the panel of the jumper on the front cover.

I had a decent amount of pink Drops Fabel sock wool left over from the April 1967 chevron-pattern dress, which was coincidentally almost the same shade as the Stitchcraft jumper. The pattern is made using standard knit and purl, k2tog / k3 tog, and yarn overs. The pattern repeat is 16 stitches + 1, worked on a stocking-stitch background i.e. the even-numbered rows are mostly purl. I added 6 stitches of garter stitch and a selvedge stitch on each side of the panel to get a good width and avoid curl. The pattern was surprisingly boring to knit! I didn’t even bother to make a chart, just used the written instructions straight out of the magazine.

I started and ended with a bit of plain garter stitch, increasing up to the total number of stitches to make the headband a bit narrower at the nape-of neck and create an elastic band effect to keep it snug. I wasn’t sure how big to make it — I have a big head and very flat hair, my friend has a presumably average-site head and very fluffy curly hair. After blocking, it ended up a little loose on me. If it’s too loose, I can always undo some of the garter stitch connecting bit on the underside.

It looks pretty and I like the pattern a lot, but I’m not sure if fingering-weight sock yarn was the best choice for a headband that should keep the ears warm. I’m afraid it won’t be warm enough. in which case, I could line it with fleece?

Not 100% happy with this project, but hopefully my friend will be.