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Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Hat Questions Answered


Money Question
I still have some of it but the bulk was spent on some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. I got some blue and is it ever the most wonderful stuff. Cuddly soft, no itch factor. It passed the bra test ladies! Its a keeper. If it ever comes up again, I'm getting more. Lots More.

Technical Question
I tried the hat on me and while it is snug, its comfortable. You can make the hat out of another yarn that doesn't have elastic incorporated into the yarn but I would suggest to add more stitches. This hat was designed with a negative ease in it. Basically its smaller than what you would normally make a hat. I did this on purpose cuz the yarn is elastic and I'm counting on that to stretch when wearing. It worked out great!

To make it larger for use with a non-elastic yarn would be incredibly easy to do. The decreases are based off of multiples of 5. So increase the # of sts by a multiple of 5. (5, 10, 15, 20) However many YOU need to fit your noggin. Don't know how big your noggin is? Well you're gonna have to measure it then!

1) Find YOUR gauge with the yarn YOU are using.

2) Measure head and subtract about 1 inch. So if your head is 20 inches...you will be casting on 19 inches. This is so that when the yarn stretches the hat will still fit. Also you want the thing to be a bit snug don't you?

3) Determine number of stitches you need for the hat. If your gauge is 4.25 sts / in and you are gonna need 19 inches... just do 4.75 * 19 = 90.25. Because I have abolutly no idea how to knit a quarter of a stitch we are gonna call this 90. Is 90 devisible by 5? As it turns out it is! 90 / 5 = 18. Fantastic. We can now move on! What do you do if your # isnt devisible by 5? Well pick another #, usually going up or down a couple of sts will get you where you need to be. And dont be worrying about a couple of sts...its not that big a deal in the grand skein of things! Everything is OK, just settle down.

4) When making the strip, make it 19 inches long and then put your twist into it.

5) Pick up 90 sts around the Moebius strip band. (Remember we figured out this in step 3).

6) Knit in stockinette until the hat is about 2-3 inches from the top of YOUR hat. You will most likely need about 10 - 11 inches in total length. So when the hat is maybe 7-8 inches start the decrease.

7) Decrease.. We figured this out in step 3. This is where the divide by 5 business comes in. We want 5 swirl things on the top right? Well if you want more just make sure that the number of swirls divides by your sts evenly. No remainders...its important. Our magic swirl # was 18. (18 * 5 = 90) This means that we knit 16 sts, then knit 2 together, 5 times. (16 + K2tog = 18 sts). Next row is K15, K2tog. Decrease in this fashion until you have 5 sts remaining. Draw the loop through the remaining sts...weave in the ends.

Your Done!!!

2 comments:

jayne said...

Thanks for the hat instructions.

Libs, you're killing me with the cashmerino. I Waaaaant Some.

Very glad that you have it in your hot little hands though. :)

Bri McS said...

I wondered what you spent your loot on, lucky duck.

I've been going back and forth on whether to knit Ann's turban for my MIL or your hat. I'm thinking both. Variety is the spice of life, and she's picky. Different appeals, both classy.