Understanding short row choices

How-to Questions
1

I’m continuing to work with short rows on shaping a hat, and I’m trying to understand short row shaping decisions. I get that short rows are usually written to be getting shorter or longer on each successive row, and I’m wondering about a few things:

  1. What determines if you should be making them shorter or longer?
  2. What happens if you put them essentially stacked, like doing the turn on the same stitch (but putting a plain row or two in between, cause I can definitely see that wrapping and turning in the same spot repeatedly would be a problem…)

Basically, for this hat I’m trying to bring the crown up a bit more forward, toward the top of the head. Similar to what this pattern is trying to accomplish, but essentially opposite:

Does it make more sense to do the rows decreasing or increasing, and how do you know?

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2

I get the question and know the answer but I just spent too much time coming up with a garbled, confusing bunch of words. My suggestion: Work a swatch. It doesn’t have to be super huge, twenty stitches would be enough. Work your short rows growing longer for a few rows then resolve the turn stitches. Then work the short rows getting shorter and a row to resolve the turn stitches. You’ll see the shape of the wedge you end up with and can decide which one will look better on your hat.

Lengthening short rows (working more stitches between turns) will put the longer edge at the bottom.

Shortening short rows (working fewer stitches between turns) will put the longer edge at the top.

I attempted a sketch to illustrate. Maybe I succeeded.

image
image384×512 14 KB

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3

I’ll test out a few arrangements. The diagram helps though! Thank you.

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4

Either way you do it on a hat shouldn’t matter a whole lot. On a bottom up hat I would most likely do it so the wedge ‘points up’.

edited because what I wrote was just not right.

5

I think the short rows in this pattern are just to add slouch at the back of the head / crown rather than all the way down the hat.

If you want to make your hat body longer, you could just work the straight sections ( between the decreases) for extra rows and work the short rows as written.

Regarding the short rows in general, if you stack them, you’ll get a pouch rather than a wedge!

The shape of the wedge is determined by whether you go from long to short short rows or the opposite.

I have a video somewhere which I’ll try to find and post

6

this video shows the difference between these methods (long to short, or short to long)

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