Another Way to Put Off Housework

My LYS The Studio Knitting and Needlepoint is doing something really fun this summer: free one hour demos of different yarn techniques and, if you like them, projects to master them. This past Saturday was one of my turns to demonstrate, and I showed passersby how to make a broomstick lace headband:

Isn’t it pretty? It’s made with loops kept uniform by a dowel of some kind (like a broomstick! A better use than sweeping, wouldn’t you say?) and then single crocheting over them. It can get a little fiddly, especially to start, but once you get the rhythm it is a simple and quick technique. Here’s how you do it:

It starts, as most crochet projects do, with a chain:

You pull the loop on your hook large enough to fit over your dowel:

Then insert your hook into the next chain, yarn over, pull up a similar loop, and put it on the dowel as well . Continue this across the starting chain and turn:

This is where it can get fiddly. Insert your hook into five loops, while they’re still on the dowel. This is important because you’re bringing up your working yarn, and if it’s too tight it’ll shrink your loops on this side, making your work lopsided.

Yarn over and pull through the loop, taking the five loops off at this time.

Chain once, and single crochet five times inside all five of the loops.

After that first cluster, I find it easier to push the loops off the dowel before beginning to crochet.

I also find it easier to use a finger (pictured is the pointer, but I more often used my middle finger) on my left hand to spread out the space where the single crochets need to be.

Single crochet five times inside all five of the loops, and do the same across all the loops the dowel.

The next row you’re going to pull up your loops from the single crochets instead of the chains, and that’s really all there is to it! You continue pulling up loops and single crocheting into them until your piece is as long as you want it (in this case, as long as it needs to be to fit around your head.)

I designed this headband, and the pattern is free at The Studio when you buy the yarn. As an added bonus, while the shop has them, you’ll also get a dowel just like the one I made my headband with (cut, sanded, and waxed by none other than Mike Fahrlander, my dad and woodworker extraordinaire).

And speaking of broomsticks, I have to mention this witchy indie dyer who was hosting a trunk show at the same time as my demonstration:

Michele of The Hummingbird Moon came all the way from Boulder, CO to bring us these beautiful yarns! Even though the trunk show is over, I highly suggest you check out her etsy store. Our favorites include sock blanks that can make a matching pair of socks (if any of you know my mom, you know she was thrilled about that!), Disney inspired colors (if any of you know me, you know I was thrilled about that!), and you have to see her color Unicorn Farts. Look at that rainbow! If she hadn’t have sold out of it before I got there, I’d have probably bought all that was left.

Here’s my (and my mom’s) spoils:

If you made it all the way to this point in this longer post, thank you so much. What would you like to make with Broomstick Crochet? Or maybe you’ve made something already? Have you worked with Hummingbird Moon yarn and have pattern suggestions? I’d love to hear it all! Leave me a comment.