Finishing a Hat?

How-to Questions
1

Hello everyone! I am new to non-rectangular projects, and have been working on hats and mittens.

When I decrease at the top of my hat or mitten, the last step on the instructions I’ve seen is always to sew the last stitches with a tapestry needle and then pull them together like a drawstring.

The problem is, I always end up with (1) a little bump at the top and (2) a little hole in the middle. It’s not too noticeable on the hats, but on mittens it looks terrible!

Does anyone know why this happens and how I can avoid it?

Thank you so much! Yay KH!

2

Don’t pull quite so tight, take the yarn though the sts again to secure it. Or maybe you need a couple more sts, or a couple less.

3

I always bring the needle with the yarn around and bring it through all stitches again before pulling it tight. I never have a hole if I do that on mittens.

4

In addition to not pulling too tight - after I pull the yarn through the remaining loops I take the needle and poke it down through the center and weave in the end on the inside. Seems to work for me.

5

I agree with jan: Pull the yarn through to the inside and secure it there- But I do not go through the dead center but through a stitch on the side, through the middle of a stitch, actually. That makes it even a bit safer, I think.

Oh, I have seen people do it either way but for me there is only one way to pull the yarn through:

when working in the round or when closing up stitches that will be like on the top of a hat / mitten, lying in the round:

I do take my yarn end from the stitch that I worked last of all to the stitch that was the FIRST of that round. Hard to write down… I go against the direction of my stitches, so the yarn gets pulled through the stitches in the order of the last round they were knit in, ending with the stitch I knit last.

In my eyes that closes the round better. Which way have you been going around?

6

Wow, thanks so much, everyone! This post was my first to the forum, and it’s so nice to be helped by so many thoughtful, experienced knitters!

I had been going around in the same direction as my stitches, and I had been pulling the yarn up off the project’s top, not down into the inside. So much helpful advice, my my!

Can’t wait to try it out on my next mitten–thank you again!