Catching Up: Headband Pattern, Shawl Variations

Don't know if I told you all about a little incident I had over Memorial Day weekend which resulted in a very needful haircut? Well, my hair is now at that in-between length where I can't put it up but don't really like it down. Besides, with the heat wave we had last week, I needed to do something to get it off my neck. Here was one option I came up with:

Very Easy Dropstitch Headband

Materials:
circular needle, size 7 or so
less than 1/2 a skein of your favorite yarn
(I used Peaches & Creme cotton - the stuff you use for dishcloths)

Cast on 3 stitches
Work I-cord for about 4 or 5 inches
Increase Row: knit 1, increase 1, knit to end.
Work increase row until you have 13 stitches.
Row 1: [knit 1, YO], repeat until last stitch, knit.
Row 2: [knit 1, drop YO], repeat until last stitch, knit.
Row 3: [knit 1, wrap yarn twice around needle], repeat until last stitch, knit.
Row 4: [knit 1, drop wrapped yarn], repeat until last stitch, knit.

Repeat rows 3 and 4 a total of 18 times.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 once.

Decrease Row: knit 1, knit 2 together, knit to end.
Work decrease row until you have 3 stitches left.
Work I-cord to match your other end.
Knit all 3 stitches together, bind off, and work loose ends up through the I cord.

I made this while sitting through a plenary session at the UCC General Synod in Grand Rapids, and wore it at another session the next day. I think I'll make them in a bunch of colors to get me through the summer!

Meanwhile, here are a few other things I've been working on:

Lynn's favorite colors to wear are purple and grey, and I offered her a shawl after she admired mine during the camping trip. I usually make them out of cotton, but (1) Lynn likes to keep warm, and (2) I had some perfectly gorgeous plum/fuscia/violet Turkish mohair sitting in my stash. (It was practically jumping up and down with it's hand up, yelling "Oo! Oo! Oo! Me!") I combined it with Red Heart Symphony in a smoky grey color and got to work. By the time I was near the end I was trying to figure out some jazzy edge lace or something, when Ann gave me the perfect idea. I love how the feather and fan lace gives it a little something extra while maintaining the visual weight of the rest of the shawl.

Well, I still had most of the final skein of mohair left after the shawl was done, so I decided to make some semi-matching wrist warmers. I guestimated the number of stitches, started off with a 12-stitch repeat version of the feather & fan lace - and ended up with something much too big. Surprise! I finished it off and am calling it a baby hat.

The second attempt seems to be about right. 30 stitches on size 8 double-pointed needles with a 6-stitch repeat of feather & fan. Work in a tube until it's about 7 inches long, then do 4 rows back and forth, then rejoin the circle for a final 4 rows. The back and forth section makes a hole which is about right for the thumb.

More to follow, but I'd better break my efforts up into multiple posts for ease of processing.