A Review of Sherry's Headband Pattern

If anyone watches my YouTube channel or knows me personally, then you may know I got my hair cut. You also know I have seriously curly, thick hair. In fact, I refer to it as "the mane" when its this short. I didn't expect it to be cut this short, but that's just the roll of the dice with hair stylists.... unfortunately.

So, with this new found plight haircut, I now have need for headbands. I prefer something soft - ie not plastic. Growing up, my dad called me Conan.... and not after Conan O'Brien. Yes - Conan the Barbarian. If I get a plastic headband, consider it snapped in two. So plastic is completely out of the question. The cloth stretchy ones from stores slide right off my head. So - crochet is my only real option for quick hairbands. I know that if I crochet a headband, I'll end up needing to use bobby pins to affix it to my head, but that's ok - anything to control the mane.

So I did what any good crocheter would do - head off to Ravelry to find a great pattern to solve all my hair woes.

I looked at several and decided upon Sherry's Headband by Sherry Lichtenwalner. You will need a Ravelry account to view this pattern. I did not see a link to the pattern on a blog or anything like that, so I'm using the direct link her Ravelry listing.

So, first thing's first - I liked the pattern and overall design. It was simple, not too wide, and easy to work through. If you can work a granny square, you can work this head band pattern. It reminded me a lot of working through my Pointed Granny Scarf pattern, without the points.

I think the pattern, as a whole, is written fairly well. There were a couple places that did not specify to turn. Since I had not turned previously, the assumption would be to not turn; however, to work the pattern (knowing from experience) I had to turn between Row 2 and 3. The pattern did not cover how to handle that transition between rows. Maybe I wasn't supposed to turn but because she did not write in how to transition between the rows, the natural instinct was to turn. I worked through it; however, it would be nice to have that area clarified a bit, but the pattern did start out saying that if you can make a granny square - so if the person did find themselves in trouble, they could easily look up a granny pattern and muddle through.

I think the size is good and the recommendation of using sock yarn is a good one. I used Red Heart "Heart and Sole" sock yarn in the color Tequila Sunrise.

I also like that at the end of the pattern, she shows a variation of her headband as more of a head scarf. The only problem is that she states on the Rav listing that it's easy to extend it out to make it longer, but does not tell you that you have to extend in multiples of 4. She tells you an exact number for the foundation chain for the head scarf, but I think that would have been good for people with larger heads (like myself) or people who want to make the head scarf instead of the smaller headband to actually give the multiples of 4 increase number.

One other change to the pattern I will make in the future, and does not count against her in the review, is that instead of dc'ing into the 6th chain from the hook when starting row 1, I will dc in the 5th chain from the hook and then at the other end, I'll have 4 dc's in the last cluster. This is so the band will be more even.

Allow me to explain - With Sherry's Headband, one side has a large ch 5 space followed by a dc cluster of 3. The other side has a dc cluster of 3 that you have to split into a chain space with a cluster of 2. I would just do it more for evenness of the pattern - Both ends of row 1 should have a dc cluster of 3. with a ch space to work the next row into.

But that is all just personal preference and has nothing to do with the pattern itself.

I am getting ready to go put on the headband and head out for dinner. I'm happy to have something quick and easy to maintain the mane (thanks, Sherry!).

I have to average this pattern's rating out because  I would rate this pattern 4 balls of yarn for simplicity, speed, and aesthetics. I would say a 3 for the couple little areas in the pattern that could have used some more explanation, that I got through based on experience. I would also give it a 5 for pure practicality and just that I like it very very much. With that being said, the total rating for this pattern would have to be 4 balls of yarn.

I will make this one again with the modification mentioned above. I would not have a problem making this as a gift for someone or even recommending it to my intermediate+ crochet friends or those beginners that have made a granny square before.