Throwback Thursday Craft-a-Long: 1970s Hairband Love

It's time again for an old timey craft made new! Last time, I futzed with salt dough, creating beads (eventually earrings), ornaments, and baby hand prints. This time, I am throwing it back to my mom's amazing 1970s The Family Crochet Book. This book, published in 1971, is a wealth of fabulous crochet clothing items, doilies, and pillow shams. I wanted to crochet one of the larger projects featured in the book, but due to time (and baby) constraints, I chose one of the simpler patterns, a headband (called "hairband" in the book). Before I get to the hairband, I need to feature some of the designs (that my mom actually made!) from the book. Enjoy!

My mother told me that she crocheted one of these bikinis.
I want to know how these things would keep their shape and not just fall
off in the water. Maybe that was the point? Scandalous!

Again, the shape keeping issue. I really want those white pants, though, with their flairy bottoms.

This book doesn't just have clothing for ladies, it has clothing for gentlemen, too! I wonder
 how Erik would feel if he received this number as his Christmas present this year? Hmmm...

1970s=Ponchos.

Ok, so this is actually something I would make for the ChiChi. Very cute.

Now that I have immersed you in 1970s crochet, here is the story of what I made. The pattern can be used for a hairband or a watchstrap. Upon reading the instructions, I had a few questions. For yarn weight, I reviewed the "notes on wools and yarns, page 22," but found that information rather useless to me. I don't think Sirdar yarn still exists, and it was difficult to translate what the book meant by the weights it listed. The first yarn I chose, which I thought was 4-ply, ended up being too thick. I then looked through my yarns again, locating the least bulky weight I could find. The yarn I found was a lovely alpaca fiber that my friend, Kerry, gave me (ohhhhhhhh, two years ago??) so that I could make something for her. (I bet she didn't think it would take me this long to quite screwing around and put something together!)

Ok, so I had the yarn and hook in hand. I proceeded to read through the directions. A few issues caught my attention. First, "miss 3 ch." After rereading this a few times, I grocked that this must mean "skip 3 ch." Next, "ending with 3 ch." In present day crochet speak, that would mean that you finish the row by making 3 chains and/or stitches. In this pattern, it means that you skip the last three chains and slip stitch into the last chain. The other unique problem I ran into with this pattern was what it mean by a treble stitch. The treble stitch it provides instructions for in the early pages of the book is actually what I would make as a double stitch. When I finally had all of these idiosyncrasies ironed out, I began work on the hairband.

Hey! It looks similar to the picture! I quickly realized that the yarn I was using was still took thick. I decided to eliminate the need for elastic, which simplified the steps need to complete the pattern in the long run.

Early on I became distracted by this picture, which is above the hairband example. I wanted those loafers and that cat.

Ta-da! Finished hairband! It looks pretty cute, and I think Kerry will like it. Thanks 1970s Family Crochet!

Glamour, glamour. ox