Hippie Headband

One of my very best friends had a birthday this week. I've known her for as long as I can remember. No, seriously. I vaguely remember meeting her in kindergarten, so our friendship literally goes back about as far as my memory does. We've had our fights, even some fairly major ones, but one or both of us always tries to mend it.
She's not quite a hippie, yet I can never think of "hippie" without thinking of her. It's probably the long blonde hair or the "if it happens, it happens" attitude. She's one of the most honest people I know. One of my favorite things about her is that I can never be too weird for her.
I could show up on her doorstep (already weird enough since she lives at least eight hours away), tell her I just got married (and I'm notoriously anti-paperwork) to a stockbroker (I don't even know where to find one of those) and needed a place to stay until the police search was canceled (I've never been involved with anything illegal beyond a couple of tickets in my teens). I guarantee you she wouldn't ask why the police were after me or how I found her address. She'd probably question the brand-new husband before anything else.
She has a way of knowing when people need a pick-me-up. I am regularly treated to random texts or facebook posts from her concerning some of my favorite things.

Doctor Who and Matt Smith have been our recent fascinations.

 

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It was on her birthday that this idea came into my head. I've tested it a few times and came up with a couple of variations. It's like a connected round and a necklace smushed together. It sounds bizarre, but it works. I'm quite in love with these as they came out almost exactly as I'd envisioned them. I'm hoping I can muss a bit and get some smaller flowers at some point.

You can wear them as I modeled them. You can wear them to the side. Oooh, over a small braid, as if to highlight it would be nice. You could do a straight chain, even, and then braid that INTO your hair, I suppose. Anyway, they just scream "music festival" to me.

Hippie Headband Pattern 1

-used Caron One Pounder Baby and an "H" Bates hook

-exact stitch count does not matter; there is no "multiple of" to worry about

Step 1: Chain 75. Skip first chain. hdc in second chain from hook and across. Connect with slip stitch to first hdc made, ignoring the first chain.
**as per usual, I used the back ridge of the chain to get that finished look I prefer**
Step 2: Chain 1, sc in same stitch and around. Connect with slip stitch to first sc made.
Step 3: Chain 1, hdc in same stitch and around. Connect with slip stitch to first hdc made.
Step 4: Chain 20. Pull up a loose loop. Chain 1. 10sc around loose loop.
Step 5: (Chain 5, skip a stitch, sc) x 5. (6sc around loop, sc OVER sc) x 5 - flower complete
Step 6: Chain 15. Pull up a loose loop. Chain 1. 15sc around loose loop.
Step 7: Chain 10. Pull up a loose loop. Chain 1. 10 sc around loose loop.

Notes:
- to keep circles tight, slide work away from you
- likewise, if you need some slack, pull toward you
- you'll need to "skip" over the line when making circles (that'll make sense to you when you work it, promise). To keep circles and flowers centered, try to do this at the halfway point

Modifications:
- Add more rows to headband
- Make headband more detailed, with an actual pattern. You can add the flower part to nearly anything.
- Wear the whole thing as a necklace if you'd like. If you had a pin or even a cute bobby pin, you could cinch it together to wear choker-style.
- Make all the circles into flowers.
- Try a different flower pattern.
- Don't make any flowers. Leave them all as circles.
- Add as many flowers as you like.

I have the purple one flipped over the top by accident. Thanks to my awesome brother for being indulging enough to "take my picture with this on my head real quick" earlier tonight.

 

Hippie Headband Pattern 2

-used Peaches and Crème Grape and White and an "H" Bates hook

-exact stitch count does not matter

 

** I changed colors on last hdc. Whatever method works for you, go for it.**

** I used back ridge of chain.**

** Do not cut yarn until very end. **

Step 1: Chain 73. Skip first chain. hdc in second chain from hook and across. Connect with slip stitch to first hdc made.
*color change*
Step 2: Chain 1, sc in same stitch and across. Connect with slip stitch to first sc made.
*color change*
Step 3: Chain 1, hdc in same stitch and across. Connect with slip stitch to first hdc made.
Step 4: Chain 25. Pull up a loose chain. Chain 1. 12hdc around loose chain. Connect with slip stitch to first hdc. Chain 1, sc in same stitch. [(dc, tr, dc), sc] x 4. (dc, tr, dc) in last stitch. Connect with slip stitch to first sc made. First flower complete.
Step 5: Chain 10. Pull up a loose chain. 10sc around loose chain. (Chain 7, skip a stitch, sc) x 5. (8sc around loop, sc OVER sc) x 5. Second flower complete. Leave a tail and cut white.
*color change*
Step 6: Slide hook under any white ridge, pull up a loop.
(what you're doing here is creating a place to start a chain from. I promise, it's the fiddliest part of this pattern and is really quite easy.)
Chain 15. Pull up a loose loop. Chain 1. 10sc around loose chain. (Chain 9, skip a stitch, sc) x 5. (10sc, sc OVER sc) x 5. Purple flower complete. Leave a tail and cut purple.

 Notes:
- I think in the purple flower, I actually sc in the same stitch as the first one. Again, sounds insane, but I didn't crochet into the sc but into the BASE of it, where it was crocheted into the initial round. Know what? Do whatever works for you - it's just a flower.

Modifications:
- pretty much the same as above

Not a great picture. Not sure if that was wind or buttons-in-hair syndrome.

 

Hippie Headband Pattern 3

-used Peaches and Crème white and an "H" Bates hook

-used 5 buttons: Large blue, medium white. Medium blue, small white. Small blue. (My tapestry needle wouldn't thread through the tiny white.)

- stitch count is still unimportant

 

Have you ever used buttons or beads? I wish I'd thought to take as-I-went pictures. That'll be my task on Saturday. It went like this. I threaded a tapestry needle. Slide through blue buttonhole, slide through white buttonhole, through other side of white, through other side of blue. Push them down the line. Be careful not to let it get too tight. If it does, slip needle under the yarn and wiggle it loose. Repeat for other buttons.

Step 1: Slide small blue button to end. Chain 1, catching button in work. Chain 10.
Step 2: Slide med/small button combo toward work. Chain 1, catching buttons in work. Chain 15.
Step 3: Slide last combo toward work. Chain 1, catching buttons in work. Chain 85.
Step 4: Skip first chain. hdc in back ridge of 75 chains. Connect with slip stitch to first hdc made.
Step 5: Chain 1, hdc in same stitch and in each stitch around.

Notes:
- Leave a long tail at beginning of work. Then you can double secure the end button and even the second if you weave tail through back ridge of chain.
- This could possibly be the easiest way to try adding buttons or beads into your work. It's at the very beginning, so you don't have much pushing or stitch counting to worry about since the stitch count doesn't matter.

Modifications:
- Use beads.
- Use more/fewer buttons.
- Make chains longer.
- All previous modifications still apply.
- Oh! A Thought. Add some of those open-middle flowers over the buttons when you're done.
- Throw a flower pattern in there if you want.

 

Hippie Headband Pattern 4

Same as above, but using flowers/circles instead of buttons. Basically, making your adornments first and then the headband. Full disclosure? I'm pretty sure that's what I did on the first one up there. But... I'd already typed it up before I remembered. That particular pattern would go like this.

Step 1: Magic Circle. Chain 1, 10sc, close circle.
And then work in reverse.

If you have any questions, just let me know.
Thank you for spending some time with me today!