Decreasing when making hats bottom up.

[CraftyHooker]

I have recently started making my hat from the bottom up, which I just love! My question is, (and this may seem silly) when working up to the top and decreasing, what formula do you use? Top down hat are normally increased by 12, (12, 24, 36, 48 etc) I have tried decreasing in this way when working  to the bottom and it never comes out right. :-(

[redrosesdz]

Welcome to Crochetville! 

Increasing or decreasing by 12 is a lot for a hat. When doing top down, the increases are the same count as the number of stitches in the ring, usually 6, then the increases chage to half, usually 3, then stop increasing. 

I've never done a bottom up, but I think it's the opposite... 3 decreases, then 6 until it's all decreases. When I do a round object, there's always 1 more row to decrease the 6 stitch count down to 3, then fasten off.

[Granny Square]

It depends on what stitch you are using.

Working top down, to achieve a flat circle with SC, increase by 6 each round; with HDC increase by 9 each round; with DC increase by 12 each round.  (US terms).  So Rosereddz is right, if the number of stitches in your first round is 6, you increase by 6 each round, but that only works (flat circle-wise) for sc.

If you think about it, a SC is about half as tall as a DC, so in 2 rows of SC you'd have increased by 12 -- the same as 1 round of DC.

For bottom-up you'd just reverse the scheme--so if you're working in DC, decreasing 12 each round is right, but not for shorter stitches.

You'll have to do a bit of trickier measuring for the height of the hat, unless it's designed to fold up at the brim and doesn't need to be precise.  When you're working top down, you can just put it on and decide "I need another inch from this point and I'm done", but you can't do that bottom up.  Measure the circumference of the tube you have working bottom up (fold in half and measure across inside, multiply by 2).  Let's say it's 22" (women's average); divide that by 3.14, which will be the diameter of the top circle (7").  The radius is 3.5", so the measurement from the crown to brim will be 3.5" plus whatever the length of the tube you've made bottom-up.  (Measure your head, or a hat you like; Bev's height measurements are allowing for fold-up))

I'm curious, how is it not coming out right?  The only thing I can think of, for myself when I'm decreasing to 'nothing' my stitches seem to be a bit gappier at the very center compared to top down (I think that's why they invented pom poms for the tops of hats)