Balaclava / Hooded Mask

This balaclava is made up of a flat panel hood that is stitched together at the bind off edge and a mask knitted in the round. The two pieces are then attached. The wide mask goes fully around the head, so it keeps your ears warm as well! This pattern uses mostly ewrap stitches, with only 8 rows of purl stitches going in one direction.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

LOOM: KB adjustable loom or any small 3/8" gauge loom with at least 85 pegs for flat panel and 72 round loom

YARN: Approximately 400 yards of worsted 4 weight yarn. I actually used Temu yarn for the first time when making this and used about 1.5 skeins of Alpaca Wool yarn in Haze Blue (I don't believe it is really alpaca, but I think it is a nice, thick yarn).

TOOLS: loom hook, yarn needle, row counter (optional - but you will need to track your rows)

ABBREVIATIONS

EW=EWrap stitch

P=purl stitch

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the balaclava, you'll first make the hood by knitting a flat panel and mattress stitching the bind off edge together. Then you'll make the mask in the round and attach the pieces.

HOOD

Please excuse the dog hair on all my photos :)

Crochet chain cast on 85 pegs to make a flat panel.

You'll start with a garter border. To slip the end pegs, you will skip the first peg when knitting the row, and U-knit the last peg.

Row 1: Slip, purl all pegs, slip

Row 2: Slip, ewrap all pegs, slip

Repeat rows 1 and 2 for 15 rows.

For the rest of the body, you will ewrap all pegs, except you will slip the end pegs and purl 1 peg on each end on every other row to prevent curling.

Row 16: Slip, P1, EW81, P1, slip

Row 17: Slip, EW83, slip

Repeat for 50 rows for a total of 66 rows.

Note: If you want a longer hood, you can cast on more pegs. However, since we are attaching the hood to the mask on the sides, changing the number of rows for the hood would require changing the number of pegs used for the mask.

Bind off with basic bind off.

Fold the hood as shown in picture and mattress stitch the bind off edge together to finish the hood. I recommend starting from the bottom and working towards the top to ensure the hood is even.

Note: Since we used mostly ewrap stitches, the bind off edge will curl. This can make it slightly challenging to stitch the edges, but the slip stitches make the stitches easier to see. You can change the last row to purl stitches to prevent curling. However, once stitched together, the hood will not curl.

MASK

For the mask, you'll basically be making a hat brim in ewrap that will be folded over and then attached to the hood. You can use any cast on as the cast on edge will be stitched together when the mask is folded over.

Cast on 72 pegs in the round. I recommend tying the tail of your slipknot to the working yarn when you finish your cast on. This knot will be a marker between you first and last peg which will help mark your place when you fold your work over.

Row 1: Ewrap all pegs

Repeat until length measures 10 inches. I did 54 rows.

Note: Your work will curl, but since we're folding the mask in half, it won't matter.

Fold your work to bring the cast on edge onto the pegs as shown below. Knit bottom loops over top loops.

FINISHING

Now is the most challenging part - attaching the hood to the mask.

Attach the stitches from the slipped stitch side of the hood to the pegs, starting from the end of the hood on the first peg, ensuring that the hood is inside the loom as shown below. You will have a few pegs remaining - that is expected!

Knit bottom loops over top loops. Bind off with basic bind off.

Take work off loom and fold mask to inside of hood.

Note: My photo shows the right side of hood facing out, but if you attach with wrong side of hood facing out, you will simply need to turn the hood inside out.

Weave all ends in.