New knitter here!
I’m making a hat -
That one, and I used size 7(US) circular needles instead of the recommended 8. Do I need to add a few stitches to make up for it? Also how is 62 stitches (the amount I cast on) enough to go around my head??
Hello and welcome to KH.
Have you started by Knitting a swatch to measure your guage? And have you measured around your head?
I found the pattern “The Hadley Hat” but there wasn’t size or gauge info on the catalog page other than it is a slouchy hat.
You may need you look ahead to the decrease repeats to see if you need a multiple of the decrease count.
For instance if the first row of decreases has “(k2tog, k some) 6 times,” then your cast on can be increased to any multiple of 6.
Welcome to KH!
There’s a bit more info on the Ravelry page:
The gauge is 4sts/inch which makes the hat about 15.5" around. For a head that measure 20-21" you would make a hat about 18-20" around so that does seem a bit small. There’s only one project and the comment there is that the hat was too small as written. The knitter went to 70sts, about 2" larger.
As far as needle size, you usually work with the needle size that gets you to the pattern gauge. Some people knit tightly, some loosely so the needle size is merely a recommended starting point.