Circular Needle decrease hat

#1

Since I honestly don’t understand how to decrease to finish off a hat, could I just bind off and simply seam up the top of the hat? This has been bugging me all day. I’ve been watching hours and hours of videos demonstrating how to decrease, but I’m just not getting it. I get it when it comes to straight needles, but circular needles, not so much.

#2

Why not put the stitches onto dpns? Then you would essentially be working on straight needles if that helps you work the decreases.

#3

What is more difficult about decreasing on circs? You knit 2 stitches together exactly like on straight needles or dpns. When you dec a lot of sts and they don’t fit around the needle anymore, you can use Magic loop method or the half a loop method shown here - Modified Magic Loop

#4

I got confused when the videos showed the stitch markers and where to place them after every row to decrease.

#5

A stitch marker at every decrease? You usually don’t need to do that. Most patterns are K x sts, k2tog and repeat. If there’s a specific pattern you’re having trouble with, let us know which one and we can help you.

#6

Oh oh oh okay! I think I understand now! Okay, say I have 84 stitches and I think it’s time to decrease. So I decrease and then knit all around and then decrease again until I have 1 stitch left? I dunno if I’m saying it right. Lol

#7

Okay, with 84 sts to start, you can k5, k2tog, k5, k2tog doing this all the way around. Then knit a round plain and on the next, k4, k2tog, all the way around. Another knit round then k3, k2tog around the hat on the next one. Knit 1 round and on the next k2, k2tog around. Knit 1 round and then you’ll do k1, k2tog. You can knit the next round or go right to the next dec round which will be k2tog, k2tog all around. At this point you’ll have about 12 sts on the needles and you can cut the yarn leaving a tail, and thread it through those 12 sts like a drawstring and you’re done. I usually thread the tail in a 2nd time too, just to make sure the top is nice and snug.

#8

Yes! I understand now! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I’ll be sure to show off the hat when I’m finished! Thanks soooo much.