I’ve just finished a hat that is way too long (about 3") at the bottom. The top fits great, but comes down to my chin when I put it on. Is it possible to somehow open up the cast-on edge at the bottom and un-ravel it to the point I want and then just cast off?
It’s from a book called “Boutique Knits”. It’s the one with the braided strap on one side.
Thanks for any help!
You can’t rip up from the cast on edge but you can shorten a knitted piece. Basically you mark the row you’d like to shorten to, put a lifeline through the sts in that row, making sure you’re putting the line through sts in a single row, cut the knitted piece a row below, and put the sts from the lifeline onto a needle. You can neaten up the little leftover bits of yarn by pulling them off from between the sts on the needle. Then you just knit down, putting on some ribbing or whatever finishing you’d like and bind off.
If you Google videos, knitting lifeline, I think you can see exactly how to do that.
It works for larger pieces than hats so good luck with it!
Here’s another tutorial in how to change the length of something by cutting and redoing.
Great pictures! Much better than the 1000 words.
Another thing you can do in the future is to pay close attention to the photo of the model wearing the hat. If it’s a large person with a big head, the directions will probably make it too long for the average user. I usually have the opposite problem. The hat always ends up too short. Most beanie type patterns don’t cover the ears. I don’t see much point in wearing a hat if your ears aren’t warm.
If I see ears showing in the model, I know I have to knit about one or two inches more before I get to the decreases. You also have to take into account how wide you want your rolled up cuff to be, if you knit a hat like that. A one inch cuff won’t stay put. I do a two or three inch rolled up cuff on hats to provide double warmth over the ears, but then we live in a cold winter climate. The traditional measurement for beanies is 5 1/2 inches from the start of your ribbed band until the decreases. I knit about 7 1/2 inches. If you knit a hat with a cuff, you will add the height of the cuff (two or three inches) to this. It depends on what type of decreases you do also. Here’s a great decrease from Jimmy Beans. http://www.allcrafts.net/fjs.htm?url=www.jimmybeanswool.com/freeKnittingPattern_hat.asp I use this decrease for shaping the tops of mittens as well. This type of decrease runs about 1/2 an inch. Hope this helps you.
Source: Knitted all kinds of man caps for my adult sons and their roommates this past fall and winter.