The thing that I love most about knitting is that out of the same basic stitches you can create so many different and beautiful designs. Colorwork, cables, and my favorite … lace, all come from the same base stitches, with a few tricks thrown in.
After plowing away on quite a handful of winter and summer hatsfor my shop, I felt like a change of pace.
These lace knit headbands are quick to knit, featuring an easy but memorable horseshoe lace pattern. Also, the yarn is a pleasure to knit with. The mix of silk, wool and nylon makes it perfect for spring weather. I have knit up a few for my shop. It’s kind of hard to stop, they go so fast. This pattern is so simple that I feel silly writing it up, but here it is:
The “Filly” – Horseshoe Lace Headband
- Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool
- Needles: Size 6
- Dimensions: 2.75 inches tall X (width varies)
- Guage: Not critical
Horseshoe Lace Pattern (Slightly modified on the wrong side because I did not read the pattern correctly!):
In Multiples of 10 + 1 extra stitch
- (Right side)Â k1 *yo, k3, sl1, k2tog – psso, k3, yo, k1*
- (Wrong side) Purl all sts
- Â k1 *k1,yo, k2, sl1, k2tog – psso, k2, yo, k2*
- Purl all sts
- k1 *k2,yo, k1, sl1, k2tog – psso, k1, yo, k3*
- Purl all sts
- k1 *k3,yo, sl1, k2tog-psso,yo k4*.
- Purl all sts
Pattern:
- CO 17 stitches.
- Right side: P1,K1,P1, knit to the last three stitches, P1, K1, P1
- Wrong side: P1,K1,P1, purl to the last three stitches, P1, K1, P1
- Repeat rows 2 & 3 once, for a total of 4 rows
- Right side: P1,K1,P1, *Work the first row of the Horseshoe Lace Pattern*, P1,K1,P1
- Continue working the Horseshoe Lace Pattern, with a seed stitch border, to the desired length. Â For Newborns, this will be about 9-10 repeats, or 12-14 inches unstretched. For adult women, this will be about 15 repeats. Basically just stretch the headband across your head to decide when to stop. 🙂
- Work two more rows of stockinette with a seed stitch border. End on the wrong side.
- Sew that baby up!
ETA: Thanks to a kindly reader who noted that line 7 of the horseshoe pattern incorrectly added a K1. I copied from my terribly scribbled notes. Anyways, pattern is currently updated. Let me know if there’s any other issues!
Modeled by my roommate!
Baby sizes!
Is that us 6 or 6 mm needles?
Hi Clare- Good question! US Size 6 needles, so 4.0mm
Will this pattern be suitable to knit with qiviut (muskox wool yarn)? I bought some in Alaska and would like to make a headband. I have 1 oz. of lace weight yarn (210 yds)
Hi Judy- I’ve never had a chance to knit with qiviut before, but it sounds very luxurious. It would make for a very warm headband.
The pattern above suggests a DK weight yarn. With your qiviut you may need to double/triple up, or hold the qiviut alongside a fingering weight yarn.
Good luck!
I just finished knitting this up. It’s a beautiful pattern, thank you!
I have a problem though the edges have completely rolled in. Would blocking totally fix this or would it need to be blocked again in the future?
Hey Nasim! Thanks for knitting my pattern!
I haven’t noticed any issues with needing to block this headband more than once. Just be careful when you block to not stretch it too much horizontally. This silk blend yarn is beautiful, but isn’t the best at retaining stretch.
I’m a little confused by this pattern. Starting from row 6 do I start knitting the horse show pattern? And what does “with seed stitch border” mean?
Hi Nicole!
Start the horseshoe pattern on Row 5. That will be your Right side, where the pattern will show.
About the border… The headband is 17 stitches across. The horseshoe pattern is 11 stitches. There will be a 3 stitch border to the left and right of the pattern (you can see in the photos above). Basically continue doing P1,K1,P1 for the first and last 3 stitches of each row. Hope that helps!
-T
Everytime I knit lace part I never have enough stitches left over to do the border at the end. I’ve tried this pattern many time and I akways get the same result. I’m not doing any of the stitches wrong and I have exactly 17 stitches so I should have enough stitches left over but I don’t. Is there anything ekse I can do? I’m frankly quite fustrated
A friend of mine told me to do it her way instead and it went sonething like this:
1. K3 *K5,K2tog,YO 2 slip the first YO over the second one, K3* K3
This is only the first row
Walking in the prsenece of giants here. Cool thinking all around!
Hi, how many stitches did you do for baby sizes? 18 month old.
Thankyou
Hi Jen! Thanks for asking. It’s been a few years since I knit this pattern up but baby sizes if I recall were the same number of stitches as adult, it just comes down to length – you’d repeat the pattern ~8 times instead of 15, or something like that. Hope that helps.
Wham bam thank you, ma’am, my qusneiots are answered!
Love this pattern! Just one question, how do bind off? In knit? Thank you
Hi Sue! Thanks for knitting my pattern. You can bind off in knit, loosely. It mostly doesn’t matter, since you will be sewing it up.
Thanks Tracy I think I’ll be making alot of these
Hi! I don’t know if you’re still checking this blog, but for row 7 in the horseshoe pattern section, when I pass over after the ‘…yo, sl1, k2tog’, am I passing the loop made by the yo, or am I passing the previously slipped stitch over both of the loops made by the yo and k2tog?
Hi Adam! Sorry for the slow reply, I don’t have notifications turned on for my blog comments. I’m sure you’ve already figured it out by now, but to answer your question – you are passing the previously slipped stitch over only the k2tog. Don’t touch the YO. Here’s a video of it- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0BgG7lJbX8 . Hope that helps!
Hi. Just to say this is such an easy pattern to work. I’m on number 4 now. I’m using a bog-standard acrylic DK and they always work fine. Thanks.