Knitty's got a brand new fad

www.knitty.com has a new little headband pattern called Calorimetry.

It's cute, and it's easy, and most of all the model looks both cool and happy. Something we'd all aspire to be. So there's been a lot of buzz about it on the various knitting chat groups ("what," you ask in horror, "people chat about their knitting?" - you have no idea how much).

But I think the pattern is weak. The nice thing about knitty is that it's entirely free: the patterns are published by fans of the site and fellow netknitters, a lot of whom attempt to make some kind of living designing clothing, so it's nice that they donate their time and energy to this magazine. I don't suppose they're paid, but perhaps they are. But my point is that I'm not trying to dismiss the magazine or the author of the pattern for being negligent in their instruction or solutions. But I do find the pattern weak.

The pattern knits the headband so that it has a ribbed surface, like that on a hat, that runs perpendicular to the forehead, like on a regular hat or longitudinal lines on a globe. This makes next to no sense to me. Ribbing is the gripper surface that keeps something in place by tightening the edge. The reason why it works on a hat is that the ribbing is only on the edge so it grips the whole exterior of the hat over a small surface area, holding that in tension. It works because the rest of the hat isn't ribbed - the unribbed part keeps the ribbing in place by releasing the tension. The whole body being ribbed means it's going to try slip off every chance it gets. Think of it like this, the ribbed piece wants to fold in on its self, if the whole hat were ribbed the whole hat would want to slide up off the top of your head.

Secondly, this pattern is written in such a way that it requires the user to button it together to stay on. The whole point of knitting a hat is that it's a nice neat one piece affair that doesn't require any effort, otherwise it's a really short scarf. Instead, why not make it fit snugly without a button.

My third criticism is that it requires short rows for shaping. While short rows aren't that hard, they are harder than M1 increases, and if the pattern were knit starting at the base of the neck, up to one ear and around, instead of from the forehead to the crown, M1 increases could do the job just as easily with less work.

So, instead of making these little relatively unwearable ditties, I found this pattern on the garn studio website, which is far superior. It's knit from nape to nape, which means that the only increases are M1. It has latitudinal ribbing which means that the piece, in its attempt to fold in on itself actually clings more tightly to the head. It's knit as one long piece and knit together at the nape, which means you can measure and get perfect fit.

And best of all, because the pattern gives instructions for increases in centimeters, you don't need to swatch. Any old gauge will do as long as you're happy with the initial width at the nape (9 stitches to cast on, you can adjust that without a swatch). As long as you measure your knitting as you go and your head, you'll end up with the right size, and best of all, you knit the ends together so need for buttons or ties.

http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=86&d_id=10〈=us

It's free. I made two of these this week (they take about two hours using noro kochoran and size six needles).

Here are pictures of both versions I made. The first, the wider, is exactly to the pattern.
The second, narrower, I omitted the last increase and corresponding decrease.

Read the pattern for clarity, it's super easy.

Comments

[Amy]

I completely disagree, I made Calorimetry and I love it! It fits well, was easy to do (and I've never done short rows before) and doesn't tend to slip off as you suggest it would.

[rita]

A version of your preferred version (!) is making waves over at Craftster under the name of Panta. I don't have a link, but if you head over and do a search on Panta, many many pages will appear. I don't know how old the DROPS pattern is, but it's possiblethat it was inspired by the panta-craze.

[femiknitter]

I definitely see your point in terms of some of your criticisms, but not others. For example, I think the whole button closure was constructed as such so one might take it on and off without disturbing one's hair. Additionally, I think short rows seem complicated, but actually are not. If someone doesn't know how to do them, this might be a good project to learn, too! I like the pattern you linked to as well, though!

[Mandy]

Your comments on Calorimetry are interesting; it's informative to read differing views on this design. I work for Knitty, so I saw this pattern before it was published, and I thought it was ingenious for all the reasons you dislike it. I still do.

Short rows are a versatile and useful technique, perfectly suited to this pattern; I am totally in favour of having more easy patterns like this, to introduce folks to short rows. I don't see a reason to avoid them.

And I like the button, because it makes the thing easy to put on and take off without messing up your ponytail!

But if we only ever read opinions we agree with, what would be the point of reading anything? ;)

The design you found is pretty cool-looking, too.