The 70s was the decade of my childhood. I grew up watching my mother make cane baskets and sew her own clothes (among many, many other crafts), learned to knit and crochet (among many, many other crafts) and my favourite item of clothing was the long, folky skirt. Since then I’ve had a soft spot for the folky look.

After working out in my 20s that using a hair dryer left my scalp both oily and dandruffy and turned my hair to straw, I took to letting it dry naturally. Wearing a headband as it dried encouraged a flattering wave and curl. Then, just after I’d rediscovered knitting and crochet, I bought a triangular crochet headscarf from a market. I liked that it had that folky look I remembered from my childhood and started making more.

Over the last few years I’ve made several of these. They’re good simple holiday knitting and give a quick sense of achievement. But lately… well, my love for the triangular headscarf has faded. I suspect I’m just a bit ‘over’ that look, but I can pinpoint two other reasons.

Firstly, I blame tv. A few months back a certain cult/sect was all over the news, and suddenly every time I spotted a reflection of myself in the mirror wearing one of my headscarves I found myself thinking all I needed was six kids and a long skirt and everyone would be thinking I was some sort of religious loony. Now, it may just be that the cult/sect on the news isn’t loony, but I couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling. Suddenly I was very ‘over’ the folky look. It was time to move on.

Reason two? Well, recently I changed my hairstyle anyway. I now have a fringe, and found that my old headbands look great with it in a 60s retro kind of way.

(The fringe needs a good cut, but hopefully you can still see what I mean.)

It’s interesting that headwear can make such strong statements about a person, a group of people or a time in history. More so than gloves or socks, by far. Maybe even more than jumpers.

Anyway, last night I crocheted up a couple of new headbands.

They’re fast and a great way to experiment with different crochet stitch patterns. So goodbye folky chocolatetrudi and hello retro chocolatetrudi. Hmm, I should make a red and white one retro headband to go with my red and white retro mini. (The car, that is, not the skirt. Though maybe my wardrobe could do with a red and white mini skirt, too. Hmm…)