I’m currently obsessed with this pattern and have made a kindle cover, scarf and just a square cat bed/pad. My dad has requested a thick hat for winter and this stitch would be perfect - I just don’t know how I would decrease without it looking wonky pattern-wise and shape-wise. I knit flat which I’ve found some people find barbaric for knitting hats, but it’s easier for my brain and hands to work together when knitting flat. Any suggestions for a smooth decrease will be appreciated and attempted.
https://mathgrrl.com/hacktastic/2017/12/triple-check-knit/
Decrease triple check knit
You could always switch to stockinette for the crown. Then the decreases would be easy peasy. Do it all one color or stripes or whatever works for you. If you like doing hats flat, that’s fine. It’s your knitting after all.
The person who wrote the blog article has created a page on Ravelry. Has anyone listed a project there with decreases? If not, then you can be the one to experiment! Make a small swatch and see what happens if you decrease every other row, or at a rate that accounts for the slipped stitches.
Alternatively, I think GrumpyGramma has a good idea to switch to another pattern for the crown. The triple check, being thicker, could be a wide band, keeping the ears nice and warm. Or if you prefer the whole hat to be in a thicker fabric, then perhaps corrugated ribbing would work for the crown.
Finally, if your dad likes quirky hat shapes, you can knit a rectangle, fold it in half, and sew up the two sides. Then maybe fold down the points and sew them in place.
(Sorry, I could only find this rather bright orange example!)
I think there are other knitted versions that look a bit like a Scottish military cap called a glengarry, if you point the “corners” to the front and back rather than side to side.
I recently saw a hat pattern that was knit flat, sorry I can’t remember where. However,the hat was real simple, they just knit a rectangle, seamed it to make a tube, then cinched up one end for the crown. It was long enough to turn up a cuff.
My first thought was what @GrumpyGramma suggested, but @Pawsable had a good idea too!
There are a few ways to turn a rectangle into a hat.
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Run a needle through all of the stitches and pull tight (this may be hard with such thick fabric):
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Make some seams:
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Knit it a bit extra long, put in some eyelets a few rows before the end and add a drawstring:
#3 can also become a neckwarmer!
This is a cool technique - thanks for sharing!
I wonder if you can do a central double decrease using alternate stitches ( e.g. stitches 1, 3 and 1 in the 4 pattern repeat, and then repeat this with their pairs on the wrong side? It looks like alternate stitches show on each face . If you worked 4 for the crown, that would eliminate 8 stitches .
I’m not sure how easy it would be to stay in pattern after, but if you worked them in succession ( ie had a steep crown!) it may not be noticeable as you’d lose 4 stitches at each decrease point.
It might be worth trying on a swatch! I’m intrigued as to how you get on!
Thanks for validating my flat knitting! I came to the defense of a co-worker last week who was told using a loom isn’t knitting.
I may try a version of your suggestion: knit the triple check until about 2 inches before decrease then quit the slip stitch and actually knit those in the pattern so the color scheme stays similar, then do a regular 2tog decrease using the same 3 yarn order.
Whether it’s telling someone they shouldn’t knit a hat flat (I don’t but that’s my choice) or telling them they knit wrong (is there a wrong way? I think not) sometimes people should just mind their own business. I Norwegian purl and I hear often that purling that way will stretch the stitches too much. It evened out my tension a whole heck of a lot and I can still knit because it doesn’t hurt my fingers and hands. Knit and let knit, yeah? I also suck at following patterns but won’t let that stop me.
Knit and let knit. Hurrah to that!
@KathyQ I prefer knitting flat. But I don’t do hats.
I like your chosen stitch pattern its very attractive.