Fingerknitted Headband: An Easy Preschool Project (with Some Parental Help Involved)

Last Sunday we went to the fifth birthday party of a very sweet little friend of ours, and Ninna wanted to make her own present, preferably something finger knitted. So far the only "official" thing she's made (not including the many, many lengths of cord) is a hot pink jump rope for my dad (dad...it will be on its way in the mail ;). We decided that she would make a headband for this gift.

Seeing as Ninna likes to be on top of things (she had already finished making three cards for our friend days before the party arrived), she promptly sat down and knitted a pink cord. Here's what you need to do to make the headband:

1. Have your child finger knit a cord, longer than you think it needs to be. If you don't know how, there are plenty of clear tutorials and videos online. It's a great, simple handwork skill for small children.

2. Cut a piece of elastic a few inches long. I went with 1/2 inch wide elastic--not too wide, not too narrow. This isn't designed to be visible; it just helps keep the headband on and helps to stretch it over the child's head.

3. Sew one end of the cord to one end of the elastic. You could do this by hand, I'm sure, but I generally use the machine whenever possible, and I also like to obsessively reinforce things like this. I used a wide zig zag stitch and went back and forth over it somewhere in the vicinity of 650,000 times:



4. Wrap the half-finished headband around your child's head to gauge how long it should be, and then remove it, holding the other end of the elastic to the cord where you'll need to sew.

5. Sew the other end of the elastic to the cord in the same obsessive manner.

6. Trim the excess knitted cord.

7. Trim the corners of the elastic a bit to round the edges, smoothing the transition from elastic to cord.

8. Take photos of your child in the headband while telling her you can't get enough of her dimple:
And if it's a gift, why not make your own wrapping paper? Here's Ninna making hers:
We were both really happy with the way this turned out, and I have several fun ideas for variations to try in the future.