I am making the unicorn hat by brittany tyler which was on the ravelry site and am stumped by a particular part of the pattern. hoping someone can help me out?
Bind off last stitch. Undo provisional cast on slipping
live stitches onto a DPN.
Make second earflap the same as the first.
Hat Body
With MC and circular needle, cast on 15 sts (front of
hat). With RS facing, knit across 11 sts of first earflap.
Using backward loop cast on method, cast on 11 sts
(back of hat). Knit across 11 sts of second earflap.
Place marker to indicate beginning of round - 48 sts.
Work in Stockinette stitch (k all sts every round) until
hat measures 6” from cast on edge.
These are the directions that are stumping me a bit. I’m not sure quite what they are asking me to do since they want me to use both circulars and dpns? any clues?
Unicorn Hat
You need to have the earflaps worked before you start the rest of the hat. By working them on DPNs (you could use other needles, straight or another circular) you’ll be able to put the live sts fromt he provisional cast on onto needles so that when you come to them you can just knit them from the needle.
With MC and circular needle, [B]cast on 15 st[/B]s (front of
hat). With RS facing, [B]knit across 11 sts of first earflap[/B].
Using backward loop cast on method, [B]cast on 11 sts[/B]
(back of hat). [B]Knit across 11 sts of second earflap[/B].
Cast on 15, knit the sts from the first earflap, cast on 11 sts, knit the sts from the 2nd earflap.
ETA You could work the earflaps on the same circ you use for the rest of the hat and just put the live sts on a holder that you can knit from. You don’t really have to have a 2nd set of needles of the same size.
Thanks for the help. So let me get this straight. As I stand right now I have knitted the two ear flaps and transferred the provisional cast ons to dpns that’s where I am. So now using the mc and circulars I cast on 15 more stitches using the particular cast on method and knit across the dpns using the circulars?
You got it! Once you get it all cast on with the earflaps joined to the cast on I think it will make sense. It’s one of those things that I had to just do what the pattern says before I could grasp what was going on.
What cast on methods are you familiar with? I’m concerned that the backward loop CO will give you problems as it tends to be really loose and sloppy. Personally I would use something else.
ETA Your sts on the DPNs are live sts, correct?
Yes they are live sts. I have never done the cast on it asks for but it doesn’t look difficult. I will try it. If I have a problem with it what would you suggest?
You can use whatever CO you like as long as it has some stretch to it. If you like long tail cast on you could use needles a size or two larger than what you’ll be working with if you tend to have a tight cast on. I’ve used cable cast on for hats and it worked just fine for me. It just depends on what works best for you.
Long tail is a wonderful cast on with a neat edge but a cable cast on or a knit cast on might be better here for the two areas where you need to cast on sts. You’ll be using the single strand of working yarn here, especially for the second cast on. Both are demonstrated on the Free Videos tab under Cast Ons.