Crazy hands knit pattern help

[catwoman]

Hi . I ripped back my knit hat back all the way back because the cuff ribbing was to long and to big for my small head lol.

The link to the pattern is here

Https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/winter-cable-hat

 

 

I want to make the cast on sts for the cuff in round 1 smaller and also the increase round sts way smaller? How does a person figure that out?

Can someone break it down for me and help me understand this?

It says in one of the comments pages someone asked to cast on how many sets for a 4 year old child and crazyhands replies :for the ribbing part you can cast on 76 sts .then you should increase to that number of sts that can be divided by 12(for ex 96)?

Why does a person have to increase by 12?

What does it mean by that?what is a multiple of 12?

Can a person make the increase sts smaller then 12 or would it mess up the pattern round sts?

 

 

[Granny Square]

The ribbing is a multiple of 4 (k2p2); I was going to guess the multiple of 12 has to do with the cable pattern, but looking at it I'm confused as well.  It looks like it should be a multiple of 8 because the cable pattern is 4 plain knits + 4 front or back cable stitches.  The cast on of  96 and increase to 120 works for either 8 or 12.  In the notes sections it's the designer saying 12, not 'other people', I just can't explain why.

The pattern doesn't give a gauge except to say the hat will be 52-54 cm; 52cm is about 20.5 inches, 54cm is nearly an inch more.  For this sort of unstructured cable I think it would be hard to measure a gauge swatch.  I looked up the yarn, Alpacana Lanoso Fine is fingering (sock) weight.  The needle used is 3.5mm, which is US size 3, which sounds about right for fingering.  Are you using fingering weight and #3 needle?  Sock patterns often suggest 2, 1, even 0  needles for socks so maybe try smaller needles if you're concerned about reducing by a multiple of 12.  Also, ribbing for any weight is very often done 1 or 2 needle sizes smaller than the body of the garment, because passing the yarn front to back makes the ribbing looser than plain stitches.  

To your question, a multiple of 12 is a number evenly divided by 12.  What I'd do if I didn't want to reduce the needle size, is count how many stitches made the hat too big, round it up to 12 or 24 or 36 (probably not more than that I suspect!) and subtract 12 or 24 or 36 from the cast on.  Or, if it's about 12 stitches too big after the increase, just don't increase.

 

 

[catwoman]

Hi granny square. . I am using a worsted weight yarn from patons with a us 4 3.5mms Dpns.

[Granny Square]

My apologies, I misread the needle cross reference for 3.5mm, which is 4 not 3 US. 

Also looking at this again, I can't find the site where I saw there were 3 weights of the Alpacana Lanoso: Bulky,  Aran and Fingering, and the fine was fingering, I was going to link it, grr!  

In any event, assuming this is really the right yarn for the design, how many stitches too big do you think it is?

[catwoman]

Hi Granny Square.Thanks fro the amazing help.When i measured the cuff it was about either 10 1/2 inches or 12 inches across and that's before stretching it  a little bit  on the cuff which was to many inches across.

Also the yarn that I am using is patons decor yarn and the yarn labels gauge is 20 sts and 26 rows.the recommended  knitting needles is a us 7  4.5 mm.

[Granny Square]

How much tighter do you want it?  for me, 10.5" inside measurement on 1 side (21" total) would be OK for me since I hate really hate tight hats and my head is about 22", but 12" across inside (24" total) is too much. Take it off the needles if it isn't already, put it on your head, pinch the excess between your fingers, take it off while keeping it pinched, and count the number of stitches "in your pinch".  If it's less than 12, reduce the stitches by 12, if between 12 and 24, decide if 12 would be enough of a reduction or if 24 would be better, or too much.

What I'd consider doing after restarting is to do a provisional cast on and start with the rows ABOVE the cuff for a few repeats of the cable, take it off the needles & put it on a holder and see if it fits OK.  This way if something is off, you don't have to rip as far.  When you have it right (fit and count), finish the hat so it's a couple of inches shorter than you want then go back, take out the provisional CO and make the ribbing as long as you need.  If you start above the increase, you'll may need to decrease by 12 (or a multiple of 4) for the ribbing.

BTW the count of 12 is right for the cable part, I was counting C4B and C4F as 4 and should have been counting them as 8, plus 4 plain stitches between the cables is 12.