Knit Practice...Help!

I have too many tee shirts. Like a ridiculous amount. So I've been culling. And I still have a ridiculous amount. Baby steps.

On the other hand, I didn't have very many headbands. Two to be exact. And I like headbands for the gym and for keeping my hair out of my eyes when I'm reading in bed. They seem more gentle than an elastic band.

You see where this is going, I'm sure. Some of the stretchier tees were rescued from the donate pile to make headbands.








I now have fourteen new headbands! There would have been more, but I made a few mistakes. After a few false starts, I looked online for tutorials.

Basic headband tutorial. This one makes a nice, plain headband exactly like the ones I bought at the store. Not a fashion statement, but functional.

Longer, knotted headband. This one is a little more stylish. It wasn't really what I was looking for, but I made one just to give it a try.





The tutorial for the knotted headband shows it wrapped around the head once and tied, with the ends trailing down. I wrapped mine around twice instead, and the knot looks like a little bow. I think this works better with my hair.








This is just one of the basic ones. I know, how exciting! :-) To make this type, I started with a rectangle measuring 4.5 inches by 17 inches. I followed the directions at the link, except for finishing off the hole. That I just did by machine, because it ends up hidden under my hair anyway.





This was good practice for me at sewing on knits. I don't do enough of that, and I find it really intimidating. I'm never quite sure what they mean when they say "use a small zig-zag stitch," so I end up experimenting on scraps until I find a width/length combination I can live with. Even a call to my mom and a look through numerous sewing books didn't shed much light on the question. My mom told me to think of it as a narrow zig zag, but that didn't work as nicely on my headbands as a smaller-all-around zig zag. Urgggh! Can anyone clear this up?