Help with a pattern

#1

I am completely new at knitting and I am working on my first project. I have read about the techniques and “codes” about knitting but I still dont understand some stuff. i am working on a beanie hat right know and the pattern says to do this:

[COLOR=“Red”]I did this:[/COLOR]
Cast on 72 stitches onto a circular needle. (Note: If you know how to do a Cable Cast On [found in most books or mags] the bottom looks much nicer!)
Being careful not to twist stitches, place marker, join knitting and work K2, P1 ribbing for 10 rounds.

[COLOR=“Red”]but I don’t get this:[/COLOR]
Round 11: *k8, inc 1, repeat from * (Total stitches on circular needle should now be 81)

theres more stuff on the pattern but one step at a time.
This is the pattern I’m working on:
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/hats/london-beanie.htm

#2

HELLO JOELSTITCH!
OK so you wanted explanation of:
Round 11: *k8, inc 1, repeat from * (Total stitches on circular needle should now be 81)

What this means is that you’ve knitted your ribbing and all for the 1st 10 rounds.
When you START the next round (round 11) you are going to knit 8 stitches and then make one (increase: you can do this with a simple yarn over). Then it says repeat from * which means you go back and knit another 8 stitches and make one, then K8 make one, K8 make one, ect. for the whole round. When you finish the round you have done 9 increases.
This is going to help make the hat have slightly more give after the ribbing. GOOD LUCK!

#3

What do you mean by “make one”?

#4

“make-one” is another way of saying increase one stitch. You are effectively adding an extra stitch onto the needle. so you are repeating the k8 increase one, 9 times and that’s why you wind up with 81 stitches at the end of the round b/c you are increasing or “making-one” extra stitch after you knit 8 …all the way around…does this help!? there are many ways of increasing and this website has all different video examples. I personally think the yarn-over is the simplest way to “make-one” or increase one if you’re just starting to learn how. :slight_smile:

#5

So I keep doing “k8, inc” until all my stitches get to the next needle?

#6

wait…you’re knitting in the round so you should be joined in a circle…on circular needles…
but YES you keep doing “K8, inc. 1” all the way around the circle.

#7

I got it, thanks a lot!

#8

I have one more question. The pattern that Im using says to use “Aran weight” yarn, but i want to make a thick beanie using “Wool-Ease - Thick & Quick (from Lion Brand)”. Can I use the same pattern with thicker yarn?

By the way, I want to make a beanie like this:

but with thick yarn.

#9

The Lion Brand Jiffy Thick and Quick is a bulkier yarn than aran weight, so you may end up a bit larger than the pattern is written for, IIRC.

But I love that cap!

#10

mm I see. I will look for a pattern for a long thick beanie. thanks for the help!

#11

You can use less stitches, and for an increase in a hat, don’t use a yarnover as it makes a hole. The increases page has several other ones to use.

#12

Lionbrand has a pattern called Floppy Beret in Thick ‘n’ Quick. You have to sign up at the site, but all the patterns there are now free.

There are a couple of other great free places to look for patterns like the one you want. I’d try www.knittingpatterncentral.com and www.ravelry.com. At ravelry, you have to sign up and join and wait a couple of days for an “invitation”, but once you’re in, it’s a great place to look for patterns and how they look when other people knit them, or if they’ve found that particular pattern to be good or bad in terms of errors.

#13

Thanks Sandy, in www.knittingpatterncentral.com is where I found the pattern that I’m using. I’ll check the other website also.

#14

I’d suggest using a different increase than a yarn over. You’ll end up with a hole every 8 stitches if you yarn over. I’d suggest using a knit front back (KFB) there is a section on increases under the free videos section that shows how to do this. It’ll look better than a yarn over I think.

Sorry if this is too advanced for your current skill level, but I think it’ll just make your finished product nicer and KFBs arent’ all that hard.

#15

A m1 would probably be better, or the incs may be in the wrong place, unless that’s the one the pattern defines as ‘inc’. A kfb uses a stitch, m1 just adds one between 2 sts.

#16

How do I figure out the gauge to use the pattern for a thicker yarn?

The gauge in the pattern is:
[COLOR=“Red”]20sts and 28 rows = 4 inches on 4.5 mm circular needle[/COLOR]

The pattern uses “1 skein worsted (Aran weight) wool” and I want to use “Wool-Ease Thick and Quick”.

On the Lion Brand website for the Wool-Ease Thick and Quick says:
[COLOR=“Red”]Gauge:
Knit: 9 stitches x 12 rows = 4" (10 cm) on size 13 (9 mm) needles[/COLOR]

Is that the gauge that I need to use for the beanie pattern?

#17

The gauge is what matters. Don’t worry too much about the lenght gauge, that you can compensate for my knitting more or fewer rows. It’s the width that’s key. So let’s pretend your beanie is supposed to be 20" around the head. The pattern says to get 20 sts to 4 inches. So that would be 100 sts (20" divided by 4" gives you 5. So 20 sts X 5 = 100). But you want to use a yarn that gives you 9 sts per 4". So 9 x 5 = 45. The only thing is, if there is a stitch pattern such as cables or twists, you would need to adjust that for your pattern, also when it comes time to increase or decrease. If you love that pattern and the adjustments seem to crazy, I would get another yarn for this project, such as Woolease by lionbrand. The yarn required for this will say “4” on the label and should show a gauge of as close to 20 sts to 4" as you can find.

#18

For a simple hat like you showed, you just need to have the sts be a multiple of 4 to accommodate the k2, p2 rib. Take a size 13 needle and see how many sts you get with it over 4" - might be 8 or it might be 10. Then figure how many inches you need to cast on, which is about 2" less than the head size. 20" is usually about right. So multiply your sts/inch from the gauge times 20 and that’s how many sts you need to cast on. Keep in mind the 4 st multiple, so it might be 48 or 52 or whatever can be divided by 4. Then cast on and knit the rib, switch to knitting all the sts until you need to dec, then you might be able to follow the original pattern for that.

#19

Thanks suzeeq that helped. This also helped:

http://www.mielkesfarm.com/bsic_hat.htm

I got it from here:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93606&highlight=beanie

#20

Yeah, that’s a great generic hat pattern, you can use it with any weight of yarn.