Circular vs Flat

#1

Hey everyone…

I want to knit a hat for a friend, and today we went shopping for the yarn and needles. The pattern (http://www.littleturtleknits.com/pithyhat.htm the green one on the left) calls for different sizes of 16" needles. I dont know if these are rare or hard to find, but we went to 2 different stores that carry a lot of different knitting stuff and we couldn’t find the necessary sizes at ALL.

So my question is… Can I knit the same pattern, but lying flat? I would think the only difference would be that doing it flat would require seaming, but thats fine… but just to make sure, does anyone know if thats possible? To take a pattern that calls for circulars and just do it flat? Thanks for any help!!

#2

hrmm…i am surprised you couldn’t find any of them i guess…but as i think about it, it seems the hobby lobby only has the super long needles too i guess. you probably could but you would have to add stitches for the seam plus you would have to figure out the shaping in flat form so that when it is seamed up the look is right. trying to figure out how to do that makes my brain hurt. there are lots of places online you would be able to find those needles if you wanted to wait a bit for them.

#3

I think it would work, I don’t see why not. Your decreases would be spaced the same for the shaping, I would think.

Just remember that knitting is one of the few things where if you screw it up, you can take the needles out and undo it and start over.

#4

Haha true. Thanks!

#5

Are there any good, trustworthy stores online that you would recommend for these specific sizes? (I dont need anything expensive… just enough to get the job done)

#6

Oh lord, there must be at least a hundred. Try the stores that appear in the ads at the top of the forums, and if that doesn’t work then knitty.com has a list of links somewhere that you can check out.

#7

You can use 2 circulars of any length (same needle size) to knit the hat in the round, or the Magic Loop method could be used. Amy has videos for both methods on this site.

You’d put half the hat stitches on each circular needle, and the Magic Loop video is pretty clear about splitting the stitches.

This way you wouldn’t need to worry about seaming.