First Circular

#1

Hello, I’ve been on here for a while. I began after first starting knitting. But I’ve never tried to gain more experience knitting so this year I decided I would start advancing and get serious. Knitting a hat on circular needles sounded easy but harder than I was used to. I bought a size 8 circular needle, watched several how-to videos and thought I was ready. Emphasis on that word thought. Anyway, right now I am trying to knit a hat on circular needles. The instructions I got were these basically:
[ul]
Using thread and needles you will be using knit a few inches (a swatch of cloth)[/ul]
[/LIST] After this, count your stitches per in. Measure the number of inches around your head and multiply that by your st/in. Round down to a number divisible by 8. [/LIST]
[ul]
Cast on the number of stitches and start knitting, and knitting and knitting. Then start decreasing, and decreasing. [/ul]

So now it comes to my problem that I have had. My number of stitches was supposed to be 110, I rounded down to 104. I started knitting that, but not only did I twist the stitches, but it was just way too big. Since then I haven’t had trouble twisting the stitches, but even though I’m now knitting at 64 in. it seems like it keeps being too big. Right now I think I finally have it in the right size, but I would like to know what I did. I’ve measured my head again to double check my in. around, but it is still the same. My instructions must be funcky.

Well that is what I am trying to knit. If I succeed, I will try to post pictures. :heart:

#2

When you knit a hat, the hat measurement should be about two inches smaller than your head measurement. That could be the issue.

It’s also possible that your gauge swatch was a bit different than your actual knitting. Gauge for knitting in the round can be a bit different than knitting flat since you’re not purling when you knit in the round. It may not be much, but even half a stitch per inch can make a difference.

Hang in there–you’ll get it.:thumbsup:

#3

Second that . My first hats were too big and I was confused because the gauge and all the math seemed right. I think instructions to ‘measure your head’ are misleading. The number you work with indeed has to be a 1 1/2 -2 inches less than the head circumference.

Also, every time my 100% wool swatches grew after washing. So if you (or the recepient) plan(s) to actually wear your hat, it might be wise to go through the trouble of washing and drying the swatch first.

#4

You need to knit a fair sized swatch too, in order to get a good idea of the number of sts/inch you’ll get with your yarn and needles. It dpends on an estimate the gauge, but casting on ~20-25 sts will usually work. Be sure to measure across the center of the swatch, not including the edge sts which aren’t full size sts. There’s a good video on the KH site for knitting a swatch in the round, the easy way.

#5

Thanks all of you for your great advice! It will definitely help me in the future. I’ll start looking at the videos on this site, since I watched one of them and it proved MUCH more helpful than the ones I’ve found on YouTube. Practice makes perfect so I’m not going to get upset. Again, thank you all!