Joy Band for My New Granddaughter (aka Bundle of Joy)

I just became a 1st time GrandPa last week!

So I wanted to make something special. We had a Knifty Knitter loom from years back so I watched a few videos and bam this is what came out. It was so easy. That said, I did have muscle memory from my 3rd grade elementary school where our teacher taught us how to knit. We used pencils as knitting needles to made headbands. Thinking back, this must have been her trick to calm us all down.

It was so fun, fast, and easy. Took me around a 1.5 hours. I then made a Joy Band for Momma and even got ambitious and made hats for the entire family - plus booties for the baby (she had giant size feet! - see last step).

It's really easy to use these looms and make all sorts of stuff.

Enjoy.

This video helped show me the process which I outline below

Just a round loom - Amazon has many options

Knitting Hook and Needle

and Yarn (I used medium weight #4)

I used the 24 peg loom and wrapped each peg twice then knitted off each peg to make the first loop.

Now just keep wrapping each peg and knit off until you make the length to fit the head circumference of the person (or baby in my case) you are making the "Joy Band" for. FYI, a newborn baby's head is around 13-15 inches. For an adult it's around 21-23 inches.

Once you have reached your target length, leave a stand of yarn around 24 inches long and knit off each peg.

After that, just flatten your yarn tube and make each end the same size by gently tugging the yarn.

To make the Joy Band interesting, you can fold the tube ends in interesting ways and then use a knitting needle to run the yarn back and forth through the tube ends. You can make a bow or a sort of twisted design.

Once done, turn the Joy Band inside out to reveal the finished design.

When I put the Joy Band on Eliza Mae, it was the first time I could really see her beautify eyes.

She even smiled at 3 days old! (I think it was a smile but you tell me :-)

These are the hats I made for the entire family and added booties as my new skill builder.