Hi!
So I have this hat that my grandma knitted more than 30 years ago and I would like to decode how she’s done a particular detail on the chin straps.
I enclose here the photos of the hat, hoping someone will be able to help me.
What I understand already:
the hat was knitted bottom up (the crown confirms this)
there are 136 stitches for the front in stockinette stitch, and 44 at the back
the hat starts at the chin straps and was then joined in round when the front and back stitches were cast on.
What I don’t seen to understand is how my grandma made that detail on the chin straps that continues until the crown.
Can someone help me understand this?
I cast on 10sts. K1, M1, k2, slip 2 purlwise, p1, pass 2 slipped sts over the p1, k3, M1, k1. I don’t know how many sts you’ll be working with but the center decrease will work.
You saved me! Thank you so much!!!
Yes, while browsing the internet, I stumbled upon the CDD, but could figure it out entirely.
I’ll try this tomorrow!
Alright! So I played a bit with my needles and I finally figured it out following salmonmac’s post. However, the CDDP is worked as follows:
Slip two stitches knitwise to the right needle - one at a time, then slip the two stitches back to the left needle purlwise as a unit. Insert your needle into all three stitches purlwise & wrap the yarn around counter-clockwise and pull the yarn through carefully, and slip the three stitches off your left needle. (source: How to knit p3tog centered - double purl decrease [+video])
So this is how it goes:
CO 11 stitches
Row 1: purl across
Row 2: SL1, M1L, K3, CDDP, K3, M1R, K1
Row 3: SL1, purl across
Row 4: SL1, M1L, KFB, K2, CDDP, K2, KFB, M1R, K1
Row 5: SL1, purl across
Row 6: SL1, M1L, K4, CDDP, K4, M1R, K1
Row 7: SL1, purl across
Repeat row 6 and 7 until desired length.
The CDDP worked in this way correspond with the little bumps on my grandma’s hat (I lifted a few times the stitches to confirm this), however, I am still struggling with making them as pronounced as it is on her work. Does someone have an idea how to do it? I’m trying with different tension while knitting, but it doesn’t seem to work all that great.
It looks good. It may be that purling the 3rd stitch then slipping the 2 sts over will give you more of a bump. The multicolor yarn might also be obscuring the pattern a bit.
That’s my thought as well!
I’ll try different wool types to see what gives me the best results.
I know my grandma reused the yarn from an old wool sweater of my father’s. She was great at that - reusing the yarn for her projects from old sweaters.
Ah, reusing yarn. Having just done this myself it could actually impact the look of that bump.
I have reused yarn before and didn’t see or feel any particular difference but had worked it the second time on the same size needle and perhaps the wibbly wobbles in the yarn had just found their groove on the needle. This time I worked on a different size needle and saw the difference in tension gauge and stitch definition.
If your grandma washed and rewound the yarn to straighten it out this may not have impacted the look of the stitch, but if (like me) she just used it without preparation it could have effected the way it knit up, and added to the bumpy effect of the stitch.
It’s a possibility.
