First time making a hat - any tips?

[lpgeorge123]

A friend of mine wants me to knit him a hat. I bought the materials already, and I know I need to make it a little bigger than what the pattern has.

 

I haven't started it yet, and I know I need to make a little swatch to test out the gage, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or tips that I need to keep in mine before I start the project. I'm a little worried worried about the gauge, though the pattern has ribbing in it, so I know it will be a little stretchy.

 

Any help would be welcome.

[andiM]

I've only made the hat below, so I don't have much advice to offer. I just took my yarn and circular needle and ran with it.

 

http://www.mindseyeyarns.com/resources/patterns/warm_ribbed_winter_hat.htm

[Adreeyen]

I always make sure that I use a cast on edge that isn't too stretchy. So I don't use the thumb cast on or elsewise. That's the only tip I can think of.

[Dangerouscrochet]

I would love to help.... But everytime I make a hat in the round, it ends up too tight. I am a tight knitter, & even though I go up a size or 2 in needles, I still end up with troubles. My first ever hat was one on a place called the OK Corral in the Sept section I believe ( You can google if you want) was made on straights, & sewed up the side, I made 3 of these.

 

I have also made a basic stretchy rib hat from Bev's web site ( that rides up something fierce on my kids' head and eventually pops off====told you I knit tight)

Loads of baby hats.

I have made a 'Mock baby cable" Hat for my 7 yo.... just used a size 10 needle and increased the required stitches. This came out nice)

I have made the " We call them pirates" from Ravelry.com & the Chakra Hat from Ravelry ( Or I am sure you can find this by google too, as it is a free pattern.) But again, they were tight. I had ended up puting a lukewarm bowl of water with fabric softener in it, & soaking the hats, & putting them over the bottom of milk jugs to dry them so they would fit right.

 

 

SO anyhoo, You will be fine. Even when the project gives you trouble, you can kind of persuade the object to stretch a little.

[lpgeorge123]

Thanks for the help. I'm a tight knitter as well, but I already have a needle that's larger than what I need. When I went to go buy the round needle, they only had one that was the right length, and the rest were all way too long. I'd already done a little bit of looking into round needles, so I knew that smaller was better. I figured it's a little thicker than the pattern calls for, but I'm a tight knitter and I want it bigger anyway, so somewhere along the way it should even out, right?

[lisalu]

The easiest way to make the hat a little bit bigger is simply to use larger needles. This wouldn't work for any garment, but it will work for a hat.

 

Another thing you can do is figure out how many inches in your pattern repeat and add one or two pattern repeats. For example if you are doing a 10 stitch cable pattern at a gauge of 5 sts/inch and you want to increase the diameter of the hat two inches, you would just add one more repeat of the pattern (add another 10 stitches). You would add more rows accordingly for the depth of the hat and you would also add one more set to the decrease sequence.

 

Hope this helps, good luck!