I’m making some mittens and hats for the two boys next door for Christmas. I’ve got the right size mitts, but I need to know their head size. The pattern I’m making (a basic watch cap) says small is 19-20 inches which seems about right, but if you have a 7 or 8 yo, could you measure his/her head?
Well, I would think that the measurement is the finished size if you’re getting the recommended gauge. The medium hat is 21-22 inches. There’s not much ribbing so I don’t think it’s going to be super stretchy.
Knit your hat smaller than the head circumference. All knits, ribbing or not, stretch, unless you are doing some particularly stiff stitch as with lots of slip stitches. If the head is 21.5 inches, 19-20 inches is a good size to aim for a finished hat, even a little smaller than that wouldn’t hurt. I’ve knit headbands for my adult head that wrap around the ears, you know, at 18-19" in fair isle (which stretches less), to give you an idea.
Cheesiemom, when you go back and look at the link you provided just above my post, you can see that there are two measurements given. One is the “to fit” head size and the other is “actual measurement”. You will see, then, that for a 21-22" head, the actual finished measurement of the hat is 19.25 inches.
I’ve got to start reading the info on these patterns more carefully. I did start out making a size small, based on the 19" measurement but when jax3303 and jaxhil posted their kids sizes, I frogged and am redoing in a size medium. Since I don’t have any fit models, I was guessing at the head size, hence the post.