knit and purl…so i how to get to start making a hat?
what do i need and is it hard to learn?
Know how to cast on,
First go to the video section. http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/learn-to-knit
Check out and try the different styles to find one that suits you.
Only you can answer whether it’s hard to learn for yourself. Some like it and some don’t.
The pattern you decide on will tell you what you need. Some hats use circulars and double pointed needles (DPNs), some are knitted flat and use seaming.
If you are totally in the dark about yarn craft you probably want to stick to a pattern.
You know most of what you need to know and no, it is not hard. You will need some way to work in the round (you can make a flat hat, but I don’t ever). My preference is to work with a 16 inch circular needle to start with and switch to two circulars or 4 double points to finish off, when it starts getting too small. Use some worsted weight yarn and the size of needle the yarn calls for unless you know you knit very tight or very loose, then you can adjust accordingly. This will usually give an adult size hat, and if it doesn’t fit you or somebody, you learned a lot by making your first hat anyway.
I usually tell people to start by casting on 85 stitches on a 16 inch circular, then take the last one you cast on and slip it to the other end of the needle and knit it together with the first stitch. This joins it into a circle, and you have 84 stitches for the hat. Make sure all of the cast on edge is in the center of the circle before you join it. You can just start knitting and it will make a rolled edge hat, but I don’t much like them. I like to do a bit of ribbing. K1, P1 around, make sure you move the yarn to the back for the knits and to the front to purl (do the moving between needles). Make as much ribbing as you like, I say at least 1/2 inch worth (to taste). If you want it to turn up put about 3 or 4 inches of rib.
Working in the round is magic. You only have to do the knit stitch and it makes stockinette, like you knitted a row, purled a row in flat knitting. Make the hat about 5 inches long from the cast on edge or the place it will turn up. Then begin decreases for the top. Anything goes here really. Any way you decrease will make a hat, but a standard way is to do evenly spaced decreases. K12, k2 tog (That’s another thing you need to know. Just stick the needle through the 2nd stitch on the needle then on through the first stitch as well and knit them as though they were one.) Do the k12, k2tog repeatedly all the way around. Then knit a round without doing anything special. Then decrease by doing a round going K11, K2 tog, over and over. Then another round of nothing special. Keep decreasing every other round with one less stitch before the K2tog. So you’d knit 10, then 9, 8, etc. When you have done k1, k2tog, you can call it quits or do a round of just k2tog all the way around.
You can really let your creativity go on the decrease part. You can put more rounds between decreases or decrease every round, or a combination. Anything goes and they will all make a hat of some type. The way I outlined above you would increase 6 times each round. You can put them closer together if you want. You can think carefully and make everything nice and even or just do it and see what happens. 
Try it on as you go and adjust what you’re doing to what you what to happen.
When the stitches are too few to fit around the 16 incher, you can switch to 2 circulars or dpns. If you have dpns, just start knitting off the circular with one of them. Put about a 1/3 of the stitches onto that first needle, then start another needle. Until you have the stitches on 3 needles, and knit with the 4th. Each time a needle is emptied use it to knit with. It doesn’t matter how many are on each needle, and divide them up so that the decreases are in a comfortable place for you. You can move stitches from one needle to another as you need to as you keep going.
If you have another circular the same size, but of any length it will work. When you are at the beginning of a new round, just start knitting stitches onto the new needle. Knit about half of them and then use the 16 inch needle to knit the rest of them. The only trick is to always work the stitches that are sitting on a needle with that same needle. With either circular or dpns knit the first stitch at each change quite snugly.
When you decide you are done, cut the yarn leaving a tail about 8 inches long and thread it through a big blunt needle with a large eye. Hold the needle that has the stitches on it that you would work next if you were going to knit another round in your left hand and begin running the sewing needle into them head on, like would to purl. Just run the yarn through all the loops letting them go onto the yarn as you go around. You can run it back through them again if you like (and can). Pull on the thread to close up the hole at the top. Run the yarn through to the inside and hide the yarn by sewing into the bumps on the inside dividing the fibers of the yarn. Check that what you are doing doesn’t affect the outside. Run it in for 1 1/2 or 2 inches and cut it off.
Thread the beginning tail and run it to the back and hide it the same way. You’re done. Have fun, be creative. Each hat will teach you something, and remember anything that will go on your head is a hat. LOL
well how to knit a hat…
[B]first:[/B]
Yarn
needles
gauge
if you were buying tiles for a floor, how many would you need for a 10 X10 room?
(100 if you buy 12 inch tiles…
but suppose you buy 6 inch square tiles? then you’d need 400!
smaller tiles? even more? giant 18 inch square tiles? fewer…)
same goes for your hat.
if you have a CYAC #4 yarn (worsted weight) and knit ‘average’ (that is on or close to the suggested gauge for that yarn/with a suggested needle) AND have an average size head
[SIZE=1][I](i have a bowling ball head, my friend D has a pin head… both of us find that most store bought “one size fits all” hats don’t fit us… they are too big on her, too small on me!)[/I][/SIZE]
but PRESUMING
1-you have worsted weight wool (1 ball/about 200 yards)
2–you have a set of size 7 (and 8 and 9 ) needles
3–you knit (in stocking knit ) about 4 stitches to the inch (with one of those needle sizes)
4-you have an average sized head (Apx 20 to 21 inches)
([I]and that is a lot to presume!)[/I]
here is how to knit a hat.
cast on (LOOSELY!) 82 stitches. (80 stitches will =about 20 inches + 2 for seaming)
work in stocking knit, or garter or ribbing (1 X1 or 2X2, 3X1)
(if you chose ribbing, also chose a smaller needle (if you use size 9 to get 4stitches to an inch in stocking knit, work ribbing with smaller (size 7 or 8 needles)
[B]pick one[/B]!–or start with garter and switch to stocking knit, or start with ribbing and switch to stocking knit!
[I]–if you start with ribbing (and smaller sized needle, switch to larger needle when you switch to stocking knit–change needles by just knitting onto larger needle.[/I]
till you have at least 7 inches (better to have 9 inches!)
then, [B]shape crown.
[/B]
1-place 9 markers.
the first after stitch 1, then 1 more marker every ten stitches (there will be 1 stitch after last marker.) you will have 10 groups of stitches on the needle, (8 groups with 10 stitches, + 1 stitch at each end not in a group.)
If working in a reversible stitch (garter/ribbing) pin a ribbon or some thing on one side (this right side!)
then work in this pattern:
[B]R1: [/B](right side) K1, *K2tog, [B][COLOR=Red]K8[/COLOR][/B], (repeat from *7 more times, K1
[COLOR=Navy][I][B]NOTE:[/B] if you have a pattern (ribbing) DO NOT KNIT 8.
Rather work the stitches in pattern (knit the knits, purl the purls)[/I][/COLOR]
[B]R2[/B]: Wrong side (work in pattern)–(purl, all if working in stocking knit, other wise, knit knits, and purl the purls)
[COLOR=Navy]Repeat these 2 rows 9 times–but the[/COLOR] [B][COLOR=Red]K8[/COLOR][/B] [COLOR=Navy]will decrease ever repeat[/COLOR]
(first time you work the pattern, K8 (between the K2tog’s)
second time you knit R1, K7 (between the K2tog’s)
Third time you knit R1, K6 (between the K2tog’s)
Forth time, Knit 5
Fifth time K4.
Then K3,
K2
K1
Last time, K2 tog 8 times.
always keeping in pattern (if ribbing)
After 9 repeats, you’ll have 10 stitches. (at this point, you can remove the markers!)
cut yarn leaving an 18 inch or so tail
thread tail onto tapestry needle
pass tail through all 10 stitches (sliding them off the needle on to tapestry needle then pull the needle (and tail through)
pull snug, and then pass tapestry needle through all 8 stitches again, pull snug and then make a knot.
Use remaining tail to sew up seam–use mattress stitch, and 1 stitch seam allowance (2 stitches get hidden in the seam, 80 stitches ‘show’
Finish by weaving in the two tails.
Enjoy your hat.
Thanks so much!!! 