How to Knit a Bow Headband
Use your knitting skills to create a headband with a bow. This pattern will make a two-inch wide headband with a 3-inch-by-4 1/2-inch bow. Beginning knitters that know how to cast on and can perform the knit and purl stitches will be able to successfully make this headband. The knit one, purl one pattern is used in both the head band and the bow to create a stretchable piece. Use a single color of yarn for both the bow and headband or make each piece from a different color.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Headband
-
1
Tie a slip knot in the end of one skein of yarn, eight inches from the end. Insert one size 6 knitting needle through the loop of the knot. Pull on the tail of yarn to tighten the loop around the needle.
-
2
Cast on eight stitches onto your knitting needle. Hold the needle and 8-inch tail of yarn together in your left hand. Make a "gun" shape with your right hand by extending your pointer finger at a horizontal angle, extending your thumb at a vertical angle and curling your bottom three fingers inward against your palm. Grip the loose yarn with those three fingers. Hold your needle above your right hand, and place the skein of yarn on the work surface below it.
-
-
3
Wrap the yarn around the back of your right pointer finger. Cross the yarn around the front of the finger to make a loop. Slip the point of your knitting needle through the bottom of the loop and along the outside of your pointer finger. Pull your pointer finger down and out of the loop while pulling on the yarn to tighten the stitch around the knitting needle. Slide the stitch down the needle until it is side-by-side with the first stitch or loop of the slip knot. Repeat this process six more times.
-
4
Hold the knitting needle with the stitches in your left hand with the pointed end toward the right. Hold a second size 6 knitting needle in your left hand with the pointed end toward the left.
-
5
Make the first knit stitch. Insert the pointed end of the right needle through the left side of the first stitch on the left needle. Push the needle roughly two inches through the stitch, moving the needle behind the left needle. Position the points of the needles so they cross in an x-shape. Ensure that the loose yarn should be behind the right needle.
-
6
Bring the yarn around the left side of the right needle and across the needle's front. Pull the yarn tightly downward. Pull the right needle downward, catching the crossed over yarn and pulling it out through the first stitch. Slide the first stitch off the left needle. Ensure that the caught loop of yarn is still around the right needle. You have finished your first knit stitch.
-
7
Make your first purl stitch. Bring the loose yarn to the front of the right knitting needle. Insert the pointed end of the right needle through the right side of the second stitch on the left needle. Push the right needle roughly two inches through the stitch, positioning it in front of the left needle. Wrap the loose yarn around the back of the right needle's pointed end, bringing the yarn back to the front.
-
8
Pull the right needle from the stitch, pushing it backward through the loop to catch the wrapped length of yarn. Push the right needle to the back of the left needle. Pull the right needle to the right to slide the second stitch off of the left needle. The purl stitch is now finished. Ensure that there are six stitches on the left needle and two stitches on the right needle.
-
9
Continue to make one knit stitch and then one purl stitch across the remaining six stitches on the left needle. Switch the hands holding the needles so that the right needle now becomes the left needle held in the left hand and the left needle is now the right needle in the right hand.
-
10
Make the second row of stitches, starting with the purl stitch. Alternate one purl stitch and one knit stitch across the row. Continue this process of making the alternating stitches, switching the needles and alternating the stitches again until the headband is long enough to wrap around your head.
-
11
Bring the loose end of the headband up behind the last row of stitches on the left needle. Insert the right needle through the left side of the first stitch on the left needle and then through the right side of the corresponding stitch on the loose end. Make a knitting stitch and then slide the first stitch off the left needle. Do this a second time with the second stitch on the left needle and the second stitch in the left end.
-
12
Use the point of your right needle to pull the first stitch on your left needle over the second stitch. Pull the first stitch entirely off the right needle, leaving only the second stitch. Knit one stitch through the next stitch on the left needle and the loose end.
-
13
Pull the previous stitch on the right needle over the most recent stitch, pulling it completely of the needle as before. Continue this knitting and binding process until there is only one stitch left on the right needle. Cut a 2-inch tail of yarn and pull it through the last stitch. Slide the last stitch off the right needle and pull the tail of yarn tight. Weave the yarn tail into the previous stitches.
Bow
-
14
Tie a slip knot in the end of your yarn. Cast on 12 stitches to one of the needles as before. Work across the first row in a knit one, purl one pattern.
-
15
Continue the knit one, purl one pattern until your work reaches 4 1/2 inches long. Bind your work by knitting through the first two stitches. Pull the first stitch over the second stitch on the right needle and off the needle. Knit another stitch. Pull the first stitch over the second stitch on the right needle and off the needle. Continue this process until there is only one stitch left on the right needle.
-
16
Cut a 3-inch tail of yarn and pull the tail through the remaining stitch. Pull the stitch off the needle and pull on the tail to tighten it. Weave the tail through the previous stitches to finish the bow.
-
17
Thread a sewing needle with a 18-inch length of yarn. Tie a knot in the end. Insert the needle through the back side of the bow, at the center point along one of its lengthwise edges. Pinch the center of the bow together. Sew through the gathers at the center of the bow to secure them. Sew the bow to the headband, on the opposite side as the joined ends.
-
18
End with the needle and yarn protruding from the backside of the bow. Tie a knot in the yard. Clip the yarn tail, leaving a 3-inch length. Weave the tail into the stitches of the headband.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit Thinkstock/Comstock/Getty Images
