Christmas FO: Reflective Sweatbands

Believe it or not this is my final Christmas project to post about! It only took over a month to post them all, but By Golly I did it, lol. So endure this final small project and you will be rewarded with non-Christmas sewing soon :)

My brother-in-law, Nick, was a bit of a mystery when it came to figuring out something I could make for him. He's a fairly no-nonsense guy and he lives in a warm climate. My sister didn't think he would really use a hat, so we both deliberated and came up with a kind of silly idea: Reflective Sweatbands.

Hear me out now - Nick is somewhat of a runner and he occasionally will do that running when the sun is not out. He wears a reflective vest at such times, so I thought he might like to accessorize. I've had this reflective yarn in my stash for months and I could never figure out anything to use it for, so this fit the bill perfectly. Instead of looking for a pattern on these, I just used my go-to hat pattern (Basic Hat by Ooo Baby Knits - a free pattern) and I cast on the number of stitches for the largest size hat and only knitted the ribbing. I believe I did 4 rows of black with 8 rows of yellow and another 4 rows of black all in k2p2 rib - super easy. For the wristbands, I just took the finished headband and stretched it around my hand to see what was comfy - I believe it was something like 40 stitches with getting over the hand - and did the same thing so they would all match.

The finished products were well received for their humor as well as their usefulness. Nick decided to immediately model them and he wore the headband most of the night. Check out how that yarn lights up with the flash from the camera! Isn't that cool?! lol I'm easily amused. The black yarn was just some worsted weight acrylic I got at a thrift store and the yellow is I Love This Yarn Reflective in Yellow Glow from Hobby Lobby (I grabbed a few skeins when they were being discontinued this summer).

Luke was thrilled by his dad's gift as well and wanted to try out the wristbands. He put them on and immediately started dancing. I guess wristbands just give a party type vibe...

I'm told that Luke will still occasionally put on the set and wear them around the house to play, lol. Who knew a toddler would love a sweatband set, amiright?

So there you have it - my entirely me-made Christmas gift collection from 2015. None of the gifts were very complicated, but I can't help but feel proud of what I was able to produce :) And it doesn't hurt that the recipients were all pleased with their presents too. It's really nice to see the items you spend your time making get used in the real world by someone other than yourself, you know?

Anyway, I promise that the next project post will NOT be Christmas related, lol.