 Hi everyone, Tasha with Start of School Crochet. Today's tutorial is how to crochet the Estrella headband. This is a beautiful Cable's headband and it has tassels hanging off of it, which you can braid if you want to. The braid turns out really pretty. So this is how you wear it. I put it on my head like this and then kind of go underneath my hair, pull it tight, and then the strands kind of hang down like that. It creates a little bit of a hippie style for you. I really like it and you don't have to keep the tassels on there. You can crochet it up to a certain point and then leave them off. So these are the decrease rounds here and then the tassels come off here. So some of the testers actually stopped right here on the pattern and then just sewed both of the ends together and it created a beautiful headband. If you're new to my channel, I do crochet tutorials. I have free crochet patterns and I often have companion videos that go along with it. Sometimes I do podcasts, so check out my website is startoschoolcrochet.com and you'll find tons of free crochet patterns there. Lots and lots and lots of free crochet patterns. If you haven't already subscribed to my channel, please subscribe and then hit that little bell button to get notified of all my future video tutorials. Welcome and thanks for being here. All right, let's get crocheting on the beautiful Estrella Cables headband pattern. So what you'll need to start is you're going to need a four millimeter crochet hook. You're going to need scissors, a darning needle, and some measuring tape. I want to go over first how to read a cable's crochet chart. So how to read a cable's chart. Basically, working a cable pattern is working single crochet rows and every row that's an even row is a single crochet row. Every odd row is a front post row. So we work front post double crochets, front post treble crochets, and front post double treble crochets to create the cable patterns. The front post double crochets are worked mostly on the bottom row, which is row number three. And then in row number five, we work front post treble, front post treble, and then these are front post double trebles doing the crossover stitches. Crossover stitches are longer because you want it to be able to go over a longer distance crossing over these crossover one, two, three, four stitches. So you're crossing it over to the other side. I've labeled the rows and columns. So these are the rows here and these are the columns here. And the way that the pattern works, and by the way, the pattern is free on my blog, you can go get this graph pattern and go get the full written pattern on the blog for free. So how to read a graph and how to do cables. Cables can be very intimidating. I'm going to demystify cables for you because they're not as difficult as they seem. They just seem that way. So how you read the symbols for the cables crochet, the front post double crochet is the double crochet with a little hook. The little hook on the bottom means that you're wrapping it around the post. Then there's a little line through it. That denotes what kind of stitch it is. That means it's a double crochet because you're wrapping your yarn around your hook one time. So it's really not as difficult as it seems. And I think once you see that and once you realize that, then you'll be like, oh, okay, now it's not so hard to understand. So the front post treble crochet, and actually I don't know what just happened here. I wrote front post triple crochetlet. There's a typo in there and I'm glad I found it. So this symbol here has the same stitch at the top, the line with the little hook and two lines through the center. Two lines means you're going to yarn over twice. So that's a front post treble crochet you yarn over twice. Front post double treble crochet you yarn over three times. So it's the same symbol with three lines down the center. It's the first, the very top line on top is just the top of your stitch. The second is how many you line over or yarn over. So whatever is between the little hook and the top line is how many times you yarn over. The single crochet is denoted by a plus sign. The chain stitch is denoted by an oval that's horizontal. And then the chain one is denoted by a vertical oval. So to start off we do a chain of 23. I numbered these going from right to left because one of the pattern testers said that it was confusing the other way. But initially you're going to chain 23 and then work a single crochet back into that chain. Then we're going to do row two. Row two is another row of single crochet. And then row three is where we start doing our drop down front post stitches. I've already done a little sample here for you to see. And this is the 15 row repeat pattern for the Australia headband. So for the Australia headband you're going to work several repeats. The repeat is rows four to 15 after you do the first three. This is our first single crochet row, our second single crochet row. And then we're going to do our first drop downs. And then you start repeating after row four. So row four to 15 is our repeat. And then the repeat is about two and a half inches long. So you do as many repeats as you want your headband to be wide. And after that we start working our decrease pattern. And then work on to the tails. So you can leave the tails off if you want or you can leave them on. I really like the tails. At the end of it I did a braid. I haven't really quite figured out how I want to secure the braid yet. So as of now I've just been kind of playing with it. And then you know once I get to the bottom just tying it around. But I really do love the way that the braid looks. And I also just love the way that the tassels look when they're hanging off. So that's up to you. And maybe if you come up with a nice way to secure the bottom of the braid. You can let me know in our post to comment below and post a picture. Send it to me. I would love to see that. That would be great. So let's get started on our cables headband. For the tutorial I'm using Lion Brands Cotton Bamboo. Which is a 52% cotton, 48% rayon. The sample that I used this is Shepe's in a stone wash. And the color Axonite. And this is a really beautiful color. Shepe's has tons of great colors. This is what the backside of your cable headband will look like. It almost looks like a fishtail braid. So what I'm going to do with this tutorial is I'm going to work through the first few rows on how to demonstrate how to do cables. I'm not going to actually work through the entire pattern. I'm just going to show you how to do cable stitches. Because it'll go on for an hour. But once you learn the gist of a cable stitch. You'll understand just how easy it is. One more thing. When you finish working your pattern. Or however many repeats you want to do for the headband. Then you stop it after an instance of row six. Which is a single crochet row. And row six. The reason why I say that is because when you start creating your decrease rows. I'll show you on this side. You want it to be at a certain point in the pattern. And row six. You want it to be straight after the criss-crosses. So it's basically straight after these criss-crosses. You don't want it working up too high. So you can stop after a row six. I mean after a row five. Or after a row eleven. As long as that. Because you're going to work your decrease rows. Come off of that. And start to work into a decrease. But I will demonstrate how to do cables. And also how to do the decrease rows. Because the decrease rows are very very complicated. Well not like super complicated. But a little bit more complicated. I'm going to pull it back. And then show you how to do the crossover. This is the ending of a row. Of a single crochet row. Which is an even row. And I believe this is row. So match it up. So this is a criss-cross here. So that looks like that would be a row nine. So we're going to work on row eleven. In doing this row. You're going to learn how to do the front post double crochet. Front post treble. And front post double treble crochet. So you'll learn all of the stitches. With just this one row. So at the end of each row. You're going to chain one. To start our next row. Which we're going to do row eleven. I'm going to do a sample. So you can see all of the cables. And how to do cables. Single crochet. In the first stitch. I'm going to single crochet in the second stitch. And then this is where the double crochet front post happens. All crochet cables. You skip the stitch that's behind. The double crochet. Or the front post stitch that you just created. So I'm going to yarn over once. Just like a normal double crochet. I'm going to go down and find the hole. That the stitch made from before. I'm going to insert my hook into that hole. So I'm working around the post. Yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over and pull through two. Yarn over and pull through two. So there I did a front post double crochet. Then I'm going to pull back. And look to see where that stitch is. Because I didn't work into the stitch. So now I'm going to work into the next one. So I'm going to skip that one. And work a single crochet into the next stitch. That anchors the stitch. Because front post stitches kind of have a raised edge off of the back of them. So I did my single crochet. And now we're going to work two front post stitches around each of these stitches here. So this is going to be a front post treble. So we yarn over two times. Go around the very first stitch. And if you get confused as to where to place it in the pattern, I labeled them. So this row right here is the, let's see, it's one, two, three, four, five. It's the fifth stitch in. So it would be considered column five. So you want to follow down and go straight down below. And find your post stitch that's below stitch number five. Yarn over, pull up. Yarn over, pull through two. Yarn over, pull through two. Yarn over, pull through two. Skip that stitch. We're going to go straight into this one here and wrap around that post. So yarn over twice. Wrap your hook around that post. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through two. Yarn over and pull through two. And then yarn over and pull through two. So you're yarning over twice and then yarning over and pulling through two, three times. So we're going to skip that stitch and that stitch. And we'll do a single crochet into the next stitch. And then we're doing a single crochet into the next stitch. And now we're at our cluster of cables. And this is where we're going to actually work across and create the cross pattern. So this is where it can be very difficult because you're actually working across a long length of stitches. In the pattern, after you do your two single crochets, the next one is going to work around post number 13. So we just did, this is five, six, seven, eight. Then you can count them, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. So you want to follow it down. And this is the post that you want to work around. For a front post treble crochet, you yarn over three times, insert your hook around the post, yarn over and pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through two, and keep repeating, yarning over and pulling through two each time until you complete it. So this is where a lot of people get a little frustrated because see how big that top loop is? You don't want that. You want to try to keep it as small as possible, but it's really hard because you're working over a lot of space and it's really frustrating. It takes practice. So you want to pull this really tight and keep your tension tight on that when you yarn over three times. Then a remedy for this is to actually bunch your work up close. So when you insert your hook around that post, kind of mush it up close to it. Then yarn over and pull through and kind of keep it mushed up as best you can. And I've learned that using just the tip of your hook helps a lot. And that made it a little bit smaller, but not too much smaller. And I wouldn't fret too much about the size of that top loop either because once you do the next row, it kind of goes away. So give yourself some grace and don't be too frustrated, but it takes a lot of twisting and practice these stitches to get those top loops to be a little bit smaller. And now let's go on to the next one. So we're going to yarn over three times and we're going to go and work into stitch number 14. And it's very forgiving this pattern because even if you can't get that top loop to look super small when you first start off, I'll show you the back of the other one. And see, these are a little bit better, but they're always going to be really big. So don't worry about your tension too much. This is what the back looks like. And once you work the single crochet on the next row, it kind of ties it all together. So you don't have to stress too hard about it. Now this part is where we're going to work back through the stitches that we skipped. So because we did three front post treble crochets, we're going to skip three stitches behind, starting from the rightmost stitch that we left off. So we actually, these three are hovering over one, two, and three. So that would be stitch number 9, 10, and 11. So these are stitches 9, 10, 11. We're going to do a single crochet into stitch number 12. And then we have 13, 14, and 15. Those are going to be our cable patterns or front post trebles, but we're going to work them back over these stitches here. So the first one, number 13, is going to go back and work over post number 9 back here. So if you're confused about where to place it, just do a little count for yourself and say 2, 4, 6, 8, 9. So that's stitch number 9. And just follow it down and you'll see that's where you want to work your stitch. So again, we're going to yarn over three times. And then we're going to go from right to the left underneath the post. This one is easier to keep your top part tight for some reason. And I don't know why. So you just do your front post treble like you did before. But it's still going to be wide and it's still a little awkward at first. So that's a little big for my taste. So I'm going to go back and try to do that one again and do it a little bit tighter. But it always takes practice. And so don't fret too hard if it looks... I found that twisting, taking small things and twisting really helps. And that was still even big so I'm going to do another one. You can turn your whole piece of work if you want. There, I think I did that one better. So yarn over three times again and now you can open up your work. You're going to work around the next post. Yarn over three times and then we're going to work around the next post. Now we finished stitch 15 and we've done all of our crossover posts. And we're going to do two single crochets. But remember we're going to skip one, two, three and work our single crochet into stitch 16 and stitch 17. After that we're doing a straight up and down post on the next one. And we're going to do a yarn over twice because we're doing a front post treble crochet. Go around the post and complete your stitches. Skip the one behind, yarn over twice, skip the two stitches behind. And then we're going to do a single crochet into the next stitch. And this one is just a simple front post double crochet around that post. Skip the stitch behind it and we should have two more stitches left. So always count your stitches too because it's super important. Sometimes when you're working a single crochet back through these you'll notice that the stitches get hidden because they get pulled tight. So I'm going to show you that. We're going to chain one, turn and work a single crochet into each of the stitches going down. Two, I'm going to count as I go, three, four, five, six, seven. So that's a small one, eight, nine, ten. And here we're coming up on some of these big stitches, 11. And here's one that's super duper tiny right there. And that's stitch number 12 and it always gets hidden. So remember to always count because I've missed stitch number 12 so many times doing this pattern. Here we go again on the other side of those cables. That stitch is really tight. And you have one more, that one too is really tight and it's hiding. So sometimes it's hard to get into that stitch. Depending on your yarn, this yarn is a little bit splitty and tight. So I'm going to count my stitches 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and 23. So yeah, I have all my stitches. And here's what we, what it looks like from the front. You'll see big holes sometimes. Don't worry about those holes. All of that's going to hide. And sometimes there's holes on this side of your work. But again, once you block it and you learn to do your stitches, you'll see right here, they just kind of blend in. So don't worry about that too. Once you loosen up these stitches and block it, it'll be just fine. Okay. So we've got to the point where we're going to start working our decrease. And we did a single crochet row. So that's where we want to end. We want to end with something that looks like the crosses over the top where they're crisscrossing. Not on one of the ones where they're straight up and down. Like that for the center part, I'm saying. So at this point, we're going to chain one in turn and do single crochet two together six times. So you insert your hook in the first stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop, insert your hook into the next stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop. So you have three loops on your hook and you yarn over and pull through both. That's a single crochet decrease. So we just did one and we're going to do two, three, six total. After that, you single crochet into the next stitch. And then we work a single crochet two together five more times. So we do one, two, four. So that's our first decrease row. For the second row too, we're going to chain one, turn it, and we're working on the wrong side now. And then we single crochet in each stitch across. So we've got one, two, three, four, six, seven, 11 and 12 stitches total. Now for the next row, we're going to be doing our front post double troubles around the front post double crochets from three rows down. So we're going to chain one and turn. And we're going to be working ours around all of these front post stitches from row three rows down. So that's actually all the way down here. And that's why we're going to be doing really, really long stitches and do the double troubles. So we're going to chain one and turn, which we did. We're going to single crochet into the first stitch and then very loosely front post double treble around the first front post double crochet from below. So front post double treble, yarn over three times. We're going all the way down here, grabbing our yarn, and then we're going to work our stitches all the way back up. So it breaks a really long stitch right off of there. For the next stitch, we're going to actually single crochet into the stitch behind the one we just created instead of skipping it like we normally do. So we single crochet into that stitch. So then we're going to front post double treble around stitch number five. One, two, three. And we're going to front post double treble around stitch number six. So there's what we have so far. We're kind of elongating all of these post stitches to go down and incorporate them into our decreased stitches. So we skip two stitches now right behind here. We're going to skip these two. And then we're going to single crochet into the next stitch. Then we're going to front post double treble around all three of these posts down here. So yarn over three times and jump down to those post stitches. Sometimes the post stitches will hide and get nestled inside. You just have to pull them up splity. There's one getting hidden. So there we've done our front post trebles around the next three. We're going to skip the stitch on the current row. And then we're going to single crochet into the next stitch. So we're going to skip one and then single crochet into the next. After that, we're going to do a front post double treble around the next three posts. All right, so we did our next three. And now we're going to skip a stitch and then single crochet into the next stitch. Then we're front post double treble around stitch number 18 below, which is this one down here. And then front post double treble around the next one, which is stitch number 19. So there we have that. We're going to front post double treble around the last stitch, our last front post stitch, I should say. Then we're going to skip two stitches behind all of the stitches we just created. And then single crochet into the last stitch. So we're going to skip these two stitches. And this kind of looks like a stitch right there. That's not a stitch. And if you want, you can actually mark the beginning and end of your stitches for the last row on row two. If it helps you figure out where the front of your stitches and the front of your rows are, I mean. So there is what we have so far with our decreased rows. Row four, you chain one, turn. And we're going to do a single crochet two together nine times. So you start off in the very first stitch. One, two, three, four, six, seven. These two stitches are hiding a little bit. That last one always hides nine. So there's our row four. Now we're going to chain one, turn it. This row creates a slight lip on the back. So what you want to do is do a slip stitch to start and then start working your front post stitches. So let's do a slip stitch into the very first stitch. Then we'll start working our front post stitches. So we're going to front post double crochet around each front post double treble from the previous row. So just a front post double crochet. And we're not going to do any stitches on the actual row itself this time. We're just doing front post double crochets around each of the front post stitches from below. You're welcome to do the anchor stitch for these, which there's a way to do that where you can anchor these stitches together so that it doesn't create a flap on the back. That's completely up to you. And we're working one around each. So we slip stitch into the very last stitch. Chain one, turn. We're going to single crochet two together six times. So you're going to start off in the first stitch, one, two. Not the slip stitch, but your first actual stitch. We do one, two, four, and six. So there we did our six. Now this flap, some people don't like it. If you don't like it, you can just, you can either tack that in while you're working your last single crochet two together around our row. And then or just get a little piece of yarn and sew it in. Do a little whip stitch and just whip stitch it in. I don't really mind the flap. It might be bothersome or annoying in a design aspect for some people. But that's up to you. So for the next row, we're going to chain two, turn, and we're going to double crochet in each stitch across. Five and six. So you should have six double crochet for that. And we're getting close to the very end. For row eight, we're going to chain one and turn. And single crochet in each stitch across. And this next row is going to actually increase by two stitches. We're in chain one, turn. We're in a front post double treble around the second and third front post double crochets from row five. So we're going to go around this one and this one. And we're going to leave this one out entirely. So we do a front post double treble. So you yarn over three times. And we're going to work around this stitch and this stitch together. So we're going to go around them together. And that brings it all the way back up to the top. So you're kind of bunching them together. We're going to skip stitch behind the one we just made. And then single crochet into the next stitch. Then we're going to front post double treble around the next three front post double crochet from below. So we're going to gather all three of these stitches together and do a front post double treble around them all. After that, we're going to single crochet behind the one we just created. So we're not going to skip anything. We're just going to do a single crochet behind that. And then we're going to front post double treble around all three of the next three from below. So those three there. This is kind of why a companion video is really good for this part of the pattern. Because it can be, it's a little more advanced. So after you gather those three together, we're going to skip a stitch behind the one we just created. And then single crochet in the next stitch. So we skip one single crochet in the next. And then we're going to front post double treble around the next two posts down here. And we're going to leave out that last one to make it even, like on the other side. Now to close the row out, we're going to do a single crochet in the last single crochet that's on this row, which is right here. So we're going to pull that forward and single crochet into that last stitch. So here's what we have so far. It's bringing all of them together. Now we're going to chain one and turn. And this is for row 10 of the decrease rows. And now we're going to chain one and turn. And we're going to single crochet in each of the eight stitches across. We got one, two, three, four, seven, and eight. Row 11, we chain one and turn. And now we're going to single crochet in the first stitch and front post double treble around the first two front post double trebles from the row. So we're going to gather this one and this one together with a front post double treble. And we're going to go around that post and this post. So I'm kind of just gathering all these together into a line. And now we're going to skip the stitch that's behind the one we just created. And we're going to single crochet in the next three. So we've got one, two, three. Now we're front post double treble around the last two. So we're going to front post double around these last two from that row and gather those together. Now you should have one, two, three more stitches. We're going to skip two stitches. And then we're going to single crochet in the last two stitches of the row. Chain one and turn and single crochet in each of the next seven stitches. Three, four, six, and seven. Chain one, turn and single crochet in the next three stitches. And now we're going to front post double treble and bring these two together. So we're going to go around that one and over through. And we're gathering those together to create a point. We're going to skip the stitch behind the one we just created and then single crochet into the next three. So we're going to skip that one and single crochet in the next one, two, and three. So there you can see our pattern. It kind of reminds me of a Celtic knock pattern, but I really loved the way that it brought all the cables together into one piece at the end and kind of tightened it up and brought it together. So I really love that and I really love this pattern. I'm not just tuning my own horn, but at this point you have two options. You can stop here and bring your headband together using a whip stitch or any kind of stitch that you want to stitch them together and omit the tails entirely. Or you can continue on and do the tails. And I'm going to demonstrate how I did the tails. You can make these tails as long as you want or as short as you want. I did mine about 67, but for the tutorial I'm going to just do about five up and show you. So at this point, this would be considered row number 14 if you continue. You would chain as many as you like long. So I'm going to chain one, two, three, four, five. And then you're going to work back into the chain in single crochet in the second chain from the hook and down back down to the base. Then when you get to the base, you're going to skip this stitch that's there and you're going to slip stitch into the next two stitches. So slip stitch, slip stitch, then you chain another chain. One, two, three, four, five. I'm just doing five just to show you. Of course these would be a lot longer. Then we're going to skip one stitch on the base and then slip stitch into the next. So we'll skip that one and slip stitch into the next stitch. And then repeat your chain five. One, two, three, four, five. Or your chain however many. I chained 67 for the initial one. So I did three tails for the main pattern. And once you complete that last tail, you skip one and you slip stitch into the last. You cut, tie, and weave your tails. You repeat your decrease rows on the other side by inserting your hook into the very first chain and then start working your decrease rows across. And you'll have a repeat pattern on both sides like this. All right friends, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Of course these are going to be longer. If you have any questions about this pattern, please let me know. Also check out the blog post. It has the full written pattern on it. And I wanted to do this demonstration to help you with the more difficult parts of the pattern and to teach you how to do cable crochets because cable crochet is a lot of fun. I'm also putting together a post just for cable crochets. So once I've finished that post, I will post that link down in the description below. And then you can head over there if you're brand new to cables and you want to learn how to do the cable stitch just by itself. And it's really, I mean, it's more complex. These are repeat rows and cables are a little bit more of an advanced crochet technique. But I know you can do it. You can do it. And thanks for being here, you guys. Happy crocheting. Bye.