I am knitting a hat on circs and have come to the decrease rounds, of which there are 5. The pattern only gives instructions for these, but I was wondering if I need to knit a plain (or even?) row between the decrease rows - is this correct, or do I just knit the 5 decrease rows in succession? :shrug:
Thanks!
What does the pattern say to do, exactly?
Susan - it does depend on what the pattern says…typcially knitting the decreases in succession will create “puckering” at the top of the hat, where as including some knit rows inbetween the decreases will help prevent the puckering, but those decrease rows have to be started sooner in the pattern.
This site here gives a “basic” pattern for a hat and does do the decreases with knit rows inbetween.
Hopefully this will help!
Hi SaraJayne and mwedzi:
Yes, the hat is puckering at the top, which I really don’t like too much, especially for a guy’s hat! The pattern is:
Decrease Round 1: *K7, K2tog, rep from *
Decrease Round 2: *K6, Kw=2tog, rep from *
and this repeats up to decrease round 6 where you K2tog for the entire round.
Then it says to knit one row even and that’s it! :shrug: In the picture it looks like it doesn’t have that puckering to me. The site I got the free pattern off of is :www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/hats/london-beanie.htm if that will help to see a picture of it. It’s supposed to be a tight-fighting cap, so I’m not sure. :shrug:
Thanks for your help!
Well, it looks like the pattern does say to decrease every round. Does it pucker when actually worn? if you want to do as sara said, then you have to start your decrease rounds twice as early or the hat will, of course, be longer than specified for in the pattern.
I’m not sure if it puckers when it’s actually worn, but it does have puckering due to the rapid decreasing. I guess that must be the way it’s supposed to be. I know sometimes patterns assume knitters know certain things, so I wasn’t sure if this was one time where they assumed you knew to knit even rows inbetween the decreases. Sometimes I overthink things and this might be one of those times!
Thanks for your help ladies! Hope you’re having a good Monday! 
Generally the pattern specifies exactly what you have to do so you’re not guessing. There are a few poorly written patterns, but many hat patterns have you decreasing on every round just like this one.
sue
Thank you! The picture showing the hat in the pattern does look like it puckers at the top. I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right!
Have a great day!