Simple Lace Headband

During my trip to New York last year, my best friend and I went to The Strand Book Store. It was heaven for book lovers like us. Right outside the store they had shelves and tables of pre-loved books that were on sale. Besides the cheap price (from $1 a book!), I've always been drawn to these second hand books because of their history and the stories behind them, and the beautiful chaos they present. Chaotic, because they are often piled unsorted, sometimes with no categorisation, only grouped by their prices. I get a high from browsing through these books, and the excitement of finally finding a treasure among them is unexplainable. (So much book passion!)

Only this time, it wasn't me who found the treasure. My best friend casually handed me this book of crochet patterns after she chanced upon it, saying something like, "Here, buy this, you might find it useful for your recent crochet hobby." And buy I did! It was only for a dollar, and had a lot of stitch patterns inside, and it was the best purchase I had on that trip (apart from all the good pizza and cheesecake that we had).

The book has a lot of patterns that can be used in almost all kinds of projects - scarves, blankets, beanies, etc. I got so excited! But since I acquired this book when I was still a newbie, I was not yet confident in making my own designs (and yes, I had difficulties reading the patterns). After almost a year of practice, I'm finally posting my first design based on one of this book's patterns. Yay!

It's a simple pattern, which I initially intended to use in a beanie, but when I saw how it looked I thought it would be a good design for a headband too. I'm not sure what this kind of pattern is called, but I'll just call it a lace because of its holes.

Materials

Hook: 3.75mm crochet hook

Yarns:
Dapper Dreamer Bamboo Cotton Blue Steel (dark blue / navy)

Headband

Ch 75. To increase length, add multiples of 12.
Note: Each ch 3 at the end of each row is the turning chain, and will serve as a dc unless otherwise stated. In cases where the turning chain is ch 6, the first 3 chains will serve as a dc and the next 3 chains will be a chain space.

Row 1: dc in the fifth ch from the hook, dc in the next 3 sts. *ch 3, skip 2 chains, dc in the next 10 sts. Repeat from *, and end the row with dc in each of the last 5 sts. Ch 3, turn. (60 sts, 6 3-ch spaces)

Row 2: dc in the next 2 sts (3 dc now including the turning ch), *ch 3, sc in the 3-ch space, ch 3, skip 2 sts, dc in the next 6 sts. Repeat from *, and end the row with dc in each of the last 2 sts, dc in the turning ch. Ch 6, turn. (42 sts, 12 3-ch spaces)

Row 3: *sc in the 3-ch space, ch 3, sc in the next ch space, ch 3. Skip 2 sts, dc in the next 2 sts, ch 3. Repeat from *, and end the row with 1 dc in the turning ch. Ch 3, turn. (24 sts, 18 3-ch spaces)

Row 4: *2 dc in the 3-ch space, ch 3, sc in the next ch space (the middle one), ch 3, 2 dc in the next ch space, dc in the next 2 sts. Repeat from *, and end the row with 1 dc in the turning ch. Ch 3, turn (42 sts, 12 3-ch spaces)

Row 5: dc in the next 2 sts, 2 dc in the 3-ch space, *ch 3, 2 dc in the next ch space. Dc in the next 6 sts, 2 dc in the next ch space. Repeat from *, and end the row with 1 dc in the turning ch.

From here, you can either fasten off, or continue to the headband ends.


Headband Ends

If you fastened off your yarn, join yarn in any corner of the headband.

We will be working on the side of each row now, and we will treat each row to be 2 sts (e.g., 1 horizontal dc is equivalent 2 sts). Note that we will work on both ends of the headband, one end will be the button end (where the button will be attached) and the other end will be the button hole end.

Row 1: Ch 2, dc in the same row (this will serve as a dc2tog for this row and the succeeding rows). 2 dc in the next 3 rows, dc2tog in the last row. (8 sts)

Row 2: Ch 2, dc in the next st. Dc in the next 4 sts, dc2tog in the last 2 sts. (6 sts)

Row 3:
For the button end: Ch 2, dc in the next st. Dc in the next 2 sts, dc2tog in the last 2sts (4 sts). Fasten off.
For the button hole end: Ch2, dc in the next st. Dc in the next st, ch 2 (or 3, depending on the size of your button), dc in the next st, dc2tog in the last. Fasten off.

You can also opt to join both ends of the headband and get rid of the button by doing a whip stitch or by slip stitching them together. You can also choose to have a tie-back headband by chaining at the end of each headband end, and doing sc's along the chain for a thicker tail. If you want to make a thicker headband, you can use thicker yarn. You can also add 1 row of stitches (dc, hdc, or sc) if you want your holes to be not on the edge.

And there you have it! Fast and simple. I'll be posting more designs inspired by my crochet book in the coming days. Enjoy crocheting AF! \m/

This pattern is free and not for sale. Please credit and link back to this site when sharing, using for business, etc. Thanks! :)