It Ain't Vintage Now But It Will Be in About Twenty Years

This was submitted to The AntiCraft but alas, they had entirely too many things with skulls on them for the next two issues. They did however, take another pattern of mine for the Lughnasadh 2006 issue. I'll let all two of you guys know when that gets posted.

Feel free to use this pattern for whatever nefarious purposes you can think of including putting it on the cat or sitting alone in your apartment rubbing it all over yourself but excluding selling it and/or claiming it's yours. You know the drill: If you post the finished product on your site put up a link back to here.

Jolly Roger Ski Band (c)Severina/A Murphy 2006

This project is perfect if you have big fake hair, dreadlocks, or just need to let steam come out of the top of your head from time to time.

Finished Measurements:
One (adult) size. As knitted this ski band will fit heads 20”-24” and is 4" wide.
Band can be resized for children by knitting in a finer gauge yarn, using size 1 needles, and knitting a narrower rib. I guess. Little kids scare me so I don't have any idea just how big a little kid's head is.

Materials:
Brown Sheep Wildefoote Luxury Sock Yarn (wool/nylon), 1 ball black, 1 ball white.
Size 2mm single-pointed knitting needles.
1 darning needle.

Note:
Ski band can either be knitted on single-pointed needles and then sewn together, or on 15” circular needle or long double-pointed needles to avoid the inevitable seam up the back.

Abbreviations:
K- knit
P- purl
Sts- stitches
Inc-increase
Dec-decrease

Gauge:
32 stitches and 40 rows over 4” of stockinette stitch.

Directions:
Cast on 160 sts in black.
Work 12 rows of k2, p2 rib.
Inc 2 sts.
K 1 row, p1 row. Note: If knitting in the round just knit all rows except ribbing.
Work chart in white, repeating skulls across row.
K1 row, p1 row.
Dec 2 sts.
Work 12 rows of k2, p2 rib.
Bind off in rib, leaving long tail to sew edges together.

Sew seam together, being careful not to distort skull motifs, but edge of skull can be repaired with duplicate stitch and white yarn.

Block ski band without stretching rib.

Comment added later: You could also put a stripe of color across the center 4-6 stitches of the skull chart. You could have figured that out all by yourself, couldn't you?