So you want to make a MTG Color Identity Headband
This is helpful for me, as I make my first one, so I figured I’d put it down for others - though, I’m going to focus on crocheting, I know you can generalize this to knitting, sewing, etc.
Step 1: What’s the circumference of your head? It’s simple, but you’ve got to know it. I’m 21.5 inches, and I’m rounding down to 21 for ease, and so it fits more snuggly.
Step 2: What’s your color identity? I’m Bant, White/Blue/Green, so I want my headband to contain those colors - and, additionally, I’m going to work in Ravnican guild symbols as well as I can where each color switches. Each third will be 7 inches, and I don’t want the symbols to take over, so i’ll make them two inches on either half, and i’ll make my headband 4 inches thick, giving me nice, square regions for each symbol.
Step 3: Crochet a test swatch! I don’t normally do this, but It’s important for this project to figure out how many stitches will go into each inch. Crocheting a 10 by 10 square in the yarn I’m using, with the hook i’m using, will help here - that said, the yarn should all be the same type, etc. I use Red Heart Super Saver because it’s good for plushes like I normally make, and it’s all the same size which avoids sizing issues.
Step 4: Diagram out Everything. How many rows each section needs, how wide you want and how many stitches that will be, how large you want your Guild symbols (or Clan symbols, of course) to be; I made something like this for each symbol, with a mental note of where the color changed - right in the middle.
You’ll notice how sketchy it is, and the crossings out and such; this is just a basic guide! Where you want colors to be, and so on.
Step 5: pick the middle of a color to start in, and get started! I decided on 3 inches between each symbol, so 12 rows, which worked out to 6 rows in white, my starting color, before starting in the lower left of that sketchy pattern. After finishing the color changes, and now in dark blue, I went another six rows and wove in all my ends from the Azorius Symbol, before crocheting the other 6 dark blue rows and starting the Simic Symbol. You don’t have to weave in ends, and if you’re not sure about the fit it’s better that you don’t, but I wanted to keep things nice and neat. So, from
this. Nice and neat and (relatively) recognizable.
So, for my Bant self, I made an Azorius symbol, a Simic symbol,
I also found it helpful, as above, to use a different color to make the symbols, though just using the two that will join, and switching which is background and which is the symbol half way, probably would look pretty cool.
And hey! After about one full day’s work (no joke, that fast), you’ve got a nice, functional headband!
(Sorry for the poor pics, though)