Apple hat instrutions help

How-to Questions
1

i am a beginner in knitting and have learnt all the concepts and am wanting to make and Apple Hat. however the instrucions are a little confusing.

  1. [B]Gauge:
    5sts = 1 [/B] what does hat mean? i am using a size 7 knitting needle. i dont have the circular needles is that fine?

2.[B]With red and circular needles cast on 72 (80, 88) sts and knit for 4 1/2" (4 3/4", 5")[/B]

i understand i need to cast on 72 stitches but what does the 80, 88 mean/? and by the rest i understand that i need to knit to 4 1/2 inches.

i would be grateful if yo could help me thanks

and loving this forum;)

p.s. i will add more instructions when i get past this first

2

Your 5 stitches - 1 inch is your knitting gauge. Using your yarn for the hat, make a swatch, at least 4 inches square. Measure the swatch, and see if it comes out to the correct gauge. Change needle size to get the right gauge. The numbers in parentheses are the number of stitches needed to get the size of hat you want. It should list the sizes at the top of the instructions.

3

Also, if you don’t have a circular needle, you will have to purl on the ws rows and seam up the hat when you’re done.

If your gauge is more than 5 stitches per inch, your hat will be smaller than the pattern says it will be; if you have fewer than 5 stitches per inch, it will be larger.

4

the numbers in paren’s? for different sizes.

newborn heads are about 16 to 17 inches,

by age one, most babies have 17 to 19 inches head,

by age 2, kids heads are 95% of adult size

(adult heads range from 19 inches to 25 (or more!) )

the different numbers are for different sizes
small is the first number, (medium, large)

you’ll have to read the pattern to see how they define medium or large…

in some patterns you can find many sizes --size 2 (size 4, size 6, size 8, size 10, size 12) which might be expressed as
70 (75, 80, 85, 90, 95) !

a good practice is to f[B]irst copy the pattern[/B], then highlight or circle the correct number for the size you are making… (before you start knitting!) then if you want to make the pattern again, your original is not all marked up.

with only 3 sizes, its not to hard to keep track… (especially if you are doing the size outside the paren’s)!