Feather In Your Hair

Feather In Your Hair Knitted Headband

Project Overview

Feather In Your Hair is a downloadable knitting pattern designed by Jenise Hope for creating an elegant lace headband featuring an integrated feather motif. This intermediate-level knitting project produces a delicate accessory sized to fit adult heads measuring 19 to 23 inches in circumference. The design showcases a charming feather pattern that emerges through lace knitting techniques, making it both a functional hair accessory and a decorative statement piece.

What Is Being Made

This pattern creates a narrow, decorative headband approximately 1.5 to 4 inches wide and 19 inches in circumference. The headband requires significant negative ease to stay securely in place on the head. The finished accessory features a garter stitch band with an integrated lace feather design that becomes visible once the piece is blocked and shaped.

Knitting Techniques Used

• Provisional cast on: The pattern begins with a provisional cast-on method using scrap yarn, allowing for later grafting of the ends together
• Garter stitch: Forms the foundational structure of the headband
• Lace knitting: Creates the feather motif through strategic yarn overs and decreases
• Grafting: Required to seamlessly join the cast-on and bind-off edges together
• Blocking: Essential finishing technique that reveals the feather pattern and sets the final shape and dimensions

Stitches and Stitch Patterns

The pattern employs fundamental knitting stitches combined in a lace construction. Key stitches include knit (k), purl (p), yarn overs (yo) for creating the openwork feather design, knit two together (k2tog) for right-leaning decreases, and slip, slip, knit (ssk) for left-leaning decreases. The feather lace pattern emerges through the strategic placement of yarn overs paired with corresponding decreases across rows 97 through 101 and beyond, creating the characteristic feather silhouette when blocked.

Materials

The pattern calls for Knit Picks Gloss Lace yarn in lace weight, a premium blend of 70% Merino Wool and 30% silk. This yarn provides approximately 440 yards per 50 grams, with the finished headband requiring only about 4 grams of yarn. Knitting needles sized 3.25 mm are used to achieve the required gauge of 6 stitches and 9.5 rows per inch in stockinette stitch when blocked. Additional notions include a yarn needle for weaving in ends and scrap yarn for the provisional cast-on technique.

Skill Level and Gauge Considerations

Rated as an intermediate difficulty pattern, this project requires knitters to be comfortable with lace knitting, yarn overs, decreases, and grafting techniques. The pattern offers built-in flexibility for gauge variations—if your gauge runs tight or loose, you can simply adjust the length of the garter stitch band accordingly by knitting additional or fewer rows before beginning the feather lace section. The specified gauge of 6 stitches and 9.5 rows to 1 inch must be measured in stockinette stitch on blocked fabric to ensure proper finished dimensions.