Baby hat pattern question

#1

I am starting a knitting project after a long time. I remember knitting as a kid abt 18-19yrs ago using straight needles. I am having a baby girl in oct’11 (yay!) and would love to make a little something for her. So I decided to go with a hat. I have no idea how to use circular needles so I just bought US size7 needles and rios 63 natural wool. Now I started looking for patterns with staright needles (now i feel stupid, its backwards :))and found one. It is so hard to find hat patterns with straight needles! Here is my question

  1. www dot knittingonthenet dot com/patterns/babypetalhat dot htm
    the pattern in link above (replace dot by . ) requires size 6 and size 8 needles + worsted yarn. Can I use use size 7 needle? or do I need to have size 6 and size 8?

  2. If you know of any patterns with straight needles, pleassee send me the link.

Thanks everyone!

KP

#2

Really odd, I copied your link and put the . in but it didn’t come up. Here’s the link - http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/babypetalhat.htm
You can probably get by with the 7s, it may be a bit small, but not too much. Though if it’s too small, you can CO 83 sts and knit one more repeat of the pattern across the row. The different needle sizes are used so the smaller one makes it a little snugger around the lower edge.

There’s another one at the same site - http://knittingonthenet.com/patterns/babyhattwoneedle.htm - but it calls for size 5 needles and 7s would make it too big.

Google for ‘baby hat two needles’ and you might get a bunch of patterns, some of which will be for size 7s. The Daily Knitter should have some and www.knittingpatterncentral.com too.

#3

Thanks Sue for the awesome advice! Now it makes sense why use 2 size needles - for a better fit. Now that I know the reason, I will just go and buy the two different size needles. I will start with that. Then, if I am brave enough, check out what are two point needles, circular needles and how to use them.

Happy knitting!
KP

#4

Here’s another link for you for no-nonsense baby patterns. Bev frequently has two needle patterns for size 8 needles.

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/baby-hats-booties.html