Wool and how to knit a cozy headband from it - beginner stitches

Many materials that humans first started using thousands of years ago still prove to be some of the most valuable. Wool is one such material, with some of the earliest evidence of humans using it being from the Neolithic Age and the 3rd millenium BC in Europe.^1,2

Wool, an animal fiber

Wool is an animal fiber that comes from the hair of different animals including sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas and rabbits.

Sheep, Ovis aries, have been a major source of wool for millenia. It is suggested that the first domesticated sheep, the ancestors of Ovis aries, were primarily used for their meat.² Following a proposed “secondary products revolution”,¹ sheep were then kept for wool. Their original coats had a coarse top layer and a fine wool under layer that shedded annually. Since the earliest evidence of domestication, the coats of sheep have undergone changes in length, structure and colour, producing the continuous-growing, finer, less hairy and more woolly fleeces of the domesticated sheep, Ovis aries.^3,4

The guanaco and vicuña are the ancestors of the domesticated llama and alpaca, respectively. The wild, extant guanaco and vicuña, as well as the llama and alpaca, are also prized for their wool coat.⁵

Wool is generally obtained by shearing, or cutting, the animal’s hair. Different sheep breeds can produce different types of wool, with some classifications including medium, fine, long, coarse, and crossbred.^6,7

Lanolin, a wax present on wool, is separated from the wool during the cleaning process.^6,7 It is a valuable lipid, secreted by the sheep’s sebaceous glands, that is used for skincare products, pharmaceuticals, water-proofing, rust prevention and in the manufacturing of many other products.⁶

A strand of wool, like other hair shafts, is comprised of multiple inanimate cells with different compostions, shapes and properties.⁷ Cortical cells make up almost 90% of the wool’s bulk.⁸ Within them is the primary component of wool - the protein fiber, keratin.^6,7,8

The properties of the animal fiber have given it importance for humans in textile production for a very long time. Some of the reasons why wool is valued is for its thermal insulation, sound insulation, softness, fire resistance, hygroscopicity, strength, flexibility, breathability, renewability, biodegradability and compostability.^6,7,8,9

Knitting a simple, cozy headband

Like in my sewing endeavours, I thought a simple project would be best to start learning the craft. Knowing I wanted to knit a headband to keep my ears warm this winter, I kept a lookout for a yarn that I liked and ended up spotting a foresty-green ball of woollen yarn made from 45% Merino wool and 55% alpaca wool.

Materials

• Yarn
• Knitting needles (the yarn usually tells you what size needles to use)
• Measuring tape
• Scissors
• Tapestry needle

The label on my yarn recommended me to use 8mm bamboo knitting needles. This was indicated by a picture of two needles above the number 8. Bamboo is apparently good for beginners as it prevents the yarn slipping around so much.

To keep it simple, I learnt the basics, which included only one type of knitting stitch (and one seam stitch). However, even with these few skills, one can finish an entire piece of clothing!

Casting-on

Casting-on is a technique used in order to start knitting. It involves attaching the yarn to one of the needles so that it creates loops/stitches that the subsequent knitting anchors onto.

There are many different types of casting-on techniques. The one I used is called the “long-tail cast-on” with the thumb method.

To begin the “long-tail cast-on”, one needs to measure a certain distance up the yarn. It is here that a “slip knot” is created, leaving a loose tail on one side of the knot (hence the name long-tail cast-on) and the ball of yarn on the other. There are different ways people like to decide the length of this long-tail. One method is to cast-on a certain number of stitches, undo the stitches and then divide the length used by the number of stitches. One can then extrapolate the length needed for the total amount of stitches to be cast-on.

After the slip-knot is made and slipped onto one of the needles, cast-on stitches are repeated until the width of the project has been achieved. When casting-on, one holds one needle and creates the stitches with the other hand. I held the needle with my right hand and created the stitches with my left hand (I am right-handed).

The knit stitch

The knit stitch is a fundemental stitch in knitting.

I held the free needle that I added new stitches onto in my right hand and the needle with stitches already attached in my left.

Each new knit stitch attaches to a loop on the needle with an already formed row of stitches. As the new stitches are made, the knitting slowly moves from one needle to the other. By the time one has knitted a whole new row, the left needle will be empty and the right needle will hold the knitting. To begin a new row, swap the needles, so the needle with the knitting is back in the left hand.

A knit stitch completed over and over for each row is collectively called a garter stitch.

Casting-off

Casting-off is necessary when one has finished a rectangle of knitting and wants to get it off the needle.

Casting-off begins by knitting two stitches as one would when starting a new row.

To cast off, the stitch loop closer to the hand is pulled over the second stitch and off the needle completely. This stitch has been cast-off and there is now only one stitch on the right needle.

Knit another stitch, so there are two again. Repeat the previous step until all your stitches on the left needle have been cast off.

One always has a maximum of two stitches on the right needle.

The mattress stitch

The mattress stitch is a method of attaching two edges of finished knitting together. It is similar to the ladder stitch I have used when sewing with thread and fabric.

To mattress stitch, I threaded a tapestry needle with enough of the same yarn I used for the knitting.

With the two edges that are to be connected laying side by side, one inserts the needle from the underside of one side, through a stitch at the very bottom corner where the seam will begin.

Next, the needle is brought directly across from where the yarn comes out to the other side of the seam. Here, the needle is inserted from the top and catches some yarn at the edge of the seam.

I will need to create a mattress stitch along the long edge (formed by the beginnings and ends of my knitted rows/garter stitch) and a mattress stitch at the edge formed by the cast-on and cast-off rows. Depending on the type of stitch adjacent to the seam, the exact strand/s of the stitches caught with the needle can be slightly different. In the case of the garter stitch edge, the needle will catch a top “bump” on the very edge of one side and a bottom “bump” on the other. In the case of the cast-on/off seam, two strands of yarn are caught, in this case, right next to the cast-on/cast-off stitches.

After this is repeated for the entire seam, the yarn can be pulled from both ends, tightened and then tied off.

The headband

I wanted to create a woollen headband that had a twist in the front and would cover my ears in the cold.

To do this, I first cast-on my yarn, noting that the width of my knitting was going to be about 20cm.

I carried on knitting each row until the length of the knitted rectangle fit around the circumference of my head, then I cast-off.

In order to turn this rectangle of knitting into a headband, I folded the rectangle in half, lengthwise, and mattress stitched the long side. To finish off, I twisted one end of the resulting tube around 180 degrees and connected it to the other end with another mattress stitch. Ta-da!

Update to headband design

My previous mattress stitches were not done as well as I’d like them to have been done, so I removed them and restitched them. However, upon finishing, I realised I had forgotten to do the final 180 degree twist before sewing the final seam! To save myself from undoing my nice new mattress stitches (laziness can stimulate creativity!), I figured out a different way of achieving my desired scrunched look at the front.

I pinched the front of the headband together to create an accordion shaped fold or scrunch. With a small bit of yarn threaded onto the tapestry needle I sewed through this accordion fold a few times and then wrapped the yarn around the outside of the it many times, tucking in the end of the yarn. That’s it!

I would like to make another headband that improves on this improvised design. Instead of wrapping yarn around the pinched/accordion folded section, I would knit a small rectangle and sew it around the pinched section (like a napkin ring!).

References