First time knitting on Circulars. A few questions

Pattern Central
1

Ok more than a “few”

I’m gonna try THIS pattern

I’ve never knitted on circular needles.

  1. When it says to increase 9 stitches evenly around. If I had casted on 81 stitches would I do an increase every 9 stitches?

  2. And what kind of increase do I do?

  3. Would I really need to switch from circ’s to dpn?

  4. How would that be done? I’ve never knitted on dpn’s either.

  5. Is this going tobe too hard?

  6. I did a gauge and I can never get it right. I did a stockinette and I got 18 sts to 4 inches not the recommended 20. How will this affect the hat?

I’m really nervous about this.

2

  1. Increasing every 9 st would be good.

  2. M1 is good because it’s invisible

  3. You will not be able to knit the entire hat on circs. You will get to the point when there are too few stitches to fit around the needle. You’ll need dpns or something like magic loop or using two circs.

  4. dpns look harder than they are, it’s a good technique to learn.

  5. ?? What have you got to lose? You should learn this sometime, why not now?

  6. You’ll need to go down a needle size to get the correct gauge. however, circular gauge differs from knitting flat gauge. You might want to try a circ swatch.

Don’t be nervous–its a hat, not brain surgery! :wink:

3

I knew I could get a good easy response. :lol:

I did the gauge on the circ’s. I’m always a stitch or two short. Maybe I’m just not counting right. :thinking:

How many dpn’s will I need? And how on Earth will I transfer the stitches over? What’s a good video or book to explain this?

4

OH and the pattern says to JOIN the knitting what does this mean?

5

hats are about my favorite thing for a quick easy instant gratification type project! And they are a GREAT way to learn DPNs because you don’t have to START with them so the join isn’t as much of an issue.

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6

Usually 4 dpns are enough, though some people prefer 5. When you knit with dpns, the stitches are on 3 needles if you’re using 4 total, and on 4 if your’e using 5 total. One is empty to work the stitches.

Here is a tutorial, and Silver’s sock tutorial is good, too. Plus Amy’s videos, of course.

When you change to the dps from the circ, I think the easiest way is to just slip the stitches purlwise on to the dpns from the circ, dividing the number of stitches equally among the needles.

7

When you ‘join’ you’re starting to knit in a circle. Have your working yarn on the right tip and the other st on the left, and just start knitting. Put a marker on your needle so you know where the start of the round it.

8

ooooookay. Ingrid is telling you to swatch in the round instead of flat because “in the round” gauge is different than flat gauge. So basically you would have to join the work and start in the round to see what kind of gauge you get. i tend to knit looser in the round i think on circs, tighter on DPNs.

Check out amy’s video on Knitting i the round. she will show you how to join the work. basically instead of knitting flat and turning the work, you will just keep knitting once you get your work cast on. watch it! it is simple!

i refuse to knit flat hats because knitting in the round is so much easier (and if you are doing a stockinette hat there is no need to do the purl stitch! :thumbsup: )