I have a question regarding decreases. I am making a hat from the son of a stitch n bitch book called the half-pipe. I was supossed to cast on 80 stitches, but because the man I am making it for has lots and lots of hair, I cast on 100, and then later increased to 120.
I am at the point of decreasing and my question is this: should I continue to decrease until I have the same number of stitches that the pattern calls for according to the 80 stitch cast on?
Thank you so much for your help!
I’m not familiar with the top of this particular hat, but many hat patterns have you get to a multiple of 10 and then decrease
knit 8, k2tog
knit 7, k2 tog
knit 6, k2tog etc.
If you want, you can use the multiple of the pattern’s decrease and start your decreases with the 120 stitches. If you think that this will make the top of the hat too long, then you can work the decreases closer together.
This hat pattern was as multiple of 20. So on my first decrease round I had to knit 18, knit 2tog and place marker, all the way around. Next row was knit, and the following row was knit to 2 before marker, k 2 tog. Repeat last 2 rows until I have 16 stitches left. So, since I didn’t start with the 80 the pattern called for, and instead have 140, do I still decrease until I get to 16, as specified by the pattern, or should I add more decrease stitches per row to only have as many decrease rows as the pattern calls for?
That’s where it’s up to you and how you want the hat to look. If you decrease as written until you get to 16, you’ll have a longer top.
You could decrease in a multiple of 10, or 14 to decrease at a faster rate and not have the top as long. You really don’t have to have a specific number of stitches left at the end unless there’s something you do with them other than pull the yarn through them.
This particular hat calls for grafting the stitches together at the end.
So I will just keep going and see how it looks. I was just a bit nervous about because I dont usually alter patterns so much.
Do the decs however you think will work. When you get to the end and think they don’t look right, you can rip out just the decs and re-knit. Often we think of a different way to knit it as we go.
Thank you both for your help. I continued the decreases until the top looked like it was long enough and then just eliminated the K row and did decreases every row. It came out great!
Ingrid has given you good advice, but I wanted to add a thought. When you are doing the decreases a lot of patterns have you decrease every other row for normal shaping of a hat top. It could be different for a super long hat or something unusual, but you can decrease every row if you need to to get rid of stitches faster.
I have made a lot of hats with no pattern and I just do it by eye. If I need to get rid of stitches fast I will decrease every row, and if I decide I have it down to where every other row works I go to that and throw in a decrease every row once in a while if needed. What I’m saying is that you don’t have to do it “by the book”, you can do whatever it takes to get the result you are looking for and you can experiment a bit, especially if you are not intimidated by doing the top more than once if what you first tried didn’t work.
That’s a good way to do it too. Great for thinking of it on your own!