How to Knit an Ear Warmer With a Twist Front

Hold two strands of worsted yarn together as if they were one. Make a slip knot and put it on your needle. Then use the long tail cast on to add stitches until you have 15. The doubled yarn makes a thick, cozy band, so it is fine if the stitches feel chunky. Leave a tail about 8 inches long. You can use it to sew the seam later.

Knit the first stitch, purl the next, and keep going knit one, purl one to the end of the row. With 15 stitches you end on a knit. On the way back, start with a purl. Look at each stitch: knit the ones that look like a V and purl the ones with a bump. Keep going until the piece measures 6.5 inches from the cast on edge.

Work in rib across the first six stitches. Now knit stitches seven and eight together. Put the right needle into both at once, as if to knit, and knit them as one. That takes away one stitch. You now have seven stitches on each needle. Do not worry if your row started with a purl instead of a knit. The measurements matter more.

Put the seven stitches still on your left needle on hold. Slide a locking stitch holder through them, close it, and slip the needle out. A piece of scrap yarn threaded on a tapestry needle works too. The held stitches wait there while you knit the first narrow strip with the seven stitches on your right needle.

Turn your work and keep going in rib on those seven stitches. Your last row decides where to start. If it began with a purl, this one begins with a knit. Work this narrow strip until it measures 4 inches, or 10 cm, from the split. Then cut the yarn, leaving a tail. The fresh end becomes the working yarn for the other side.

Slide the seven held stitches off the holder and onto your free needle. Then put the stitches from the strip you finished on the holder instead. Join your yarn to the new side and work in rib until this second strip is also 4 inches long. Now you have two narrow strips side by side, each attached to the wide band.

This is the twist. Point your needle toward the outside of the work. Lay one strip over the other so they make an X, with the working yarn sitting in the center of the cross. Now slip the held stitches back onto your left needle and take the holder out. Turn the work so the yarn is in your right hand. Both strips now sit on needles again.

You need one stitch back to make 15 again. Knit into the next stitch as normal but leave it on the left needle. Then knit into the back leg of that same stitch and slip it off. That is knit front and back, and it adds one stitch. A backwards loop cast on works too. Carry on in rib to the end of the row. The twist is done.

Keep working knit one, purl one across all 15 stitches. Measure from the center of the cross to your needle. When this half reaches 6.5 inches, the strip should match the first half. Bind off in rib, knitting the knits and purling the purls as you go. That keeps the edge as stretchy as the cast on. Cut the yarn and leave a long tail for sewing.

Thread the long tail on a tapestry needle. Hold the cast on edge and the bind off edge together, with the twist facing out. Go under one stitch on each edge, pull the yarn through, and wrap over the top. Repeat all the way across. Whip stitch lies flat and is comfy to wear. Weave in the ends on the side you like less, and your headband is ready.