Cricket Knitting

Ok, so I may have missed the odd ball bowled or four hit, but I did knit two headbands at the cricket game, South Africa versus Bangladesh. I was sitting on a folding chair, I hasten to add, not on the ground. I finished the bands off when I got home:

I did some experimenting before we left, to get the increases and decreases right. To get the V rib look of the original, I had to increase 5 stitches in the centre on the first half and decrease 5 on the second half. I tried increasing 5 times in the centre stitch, but it creates a large hole:

The solution I eventually arrived at was to work to the centre stitch, pick up and purl the loop before the stitch, increase to three stitches from the centre stitch and then pick up and purl the following loop. 5 stitches increased without a hole. On the decrease side, I worked a slip one, knit one, pass slip stitch over decrease, purled the centre three stitches together and then knitted two together. I tried purling 5 stitches together, but it causes a horrible lump.

Here's a photo I took at the rugby to record the half time score, that shows why knitting at a rugby test match is not really an option:

PS. South Africa has just won the cricket game. The rugby game was a draw, 27 points each to South Africa and Australia.