Garter Cuff Hat - The Rest of the Story

....and round, and round. I really would rather be throwing in some sort of pattern, but 1) most of the middle will be covered by the cuff and 2) this is for a boy who has reached the age where he probably would not wear anything that drew attention to itself, so forget the idea of bobbles, thank you very much. Finally the decreases (about which more below).



Finished, washed and drying.



Done. Plain, but serviceable.

Now about the decreases. I wanted a nicely rounded top: not pointy, not gathered. So I used a formula I first found in Knitting in the Nordic Tradition by Vibeke Lind (wonderful book).

She says to divide into 10 or 12 parts, but since I had 66 sts I divided into 11 parts of 6 sts each; and from there it went like this:
(k4, k2tog) 11 times
Knit 4 rounds plain.
(k3, k2tog) 11 times
Knit 3 rounds plain.
(k2, k2tog) 11 times.
Knit 2 rounds plain.
(k1, k2tog) 11 times.
Knit 1 round plain.
(k2tog) 11 times.
Since I still had 11 sts at this point I did and additional round of K1, k2tog 5 times, but I could have just gathered up the 11 sts.

This can work with anywhere from 8 to 12 sections. The fewer the sections, the more elongated the top will be.

And while I'm on the subject of hats, Jeri has a neat little measuring trick on her Dollar Hat post.

Another Way of Winging It - The Garter Cuff Hat

I am going to make another hat. I have some nice handspun wool that has been sitting in the stash for about 8 years, and I need to make a Christmas present. The yarn is about a sport weight and I'm using size 5 needles.

First I guesstimated that 18 sts would give me about 4". (As it turns out, it's working up to about 4 1/2", but that's close enough).

I'm working plain old garter stitch, but I am slipping the first stich of every row knitwise and purling the last stitch of every row. One of those edges is going to show, so I want it to look smooth, and I will be picking up stitches along the other, which will be easier with a chain selvedge.

Now I will just keep knitting until the piece measures about 18". Why 18"? Because the ever so handy Standard Body Measurements/Sizing chart gives that as the head circumference for a child, and the intended victim for this one is, indeed, a child. I am not worrying about adding ease, because that garter is going to be stretchy. (On the other hand, this particular child has a largish head - maybe I'll go to 19", which is what the Yarn Harlot lists as average for a 5-10 year old.)

La, la, la; knit, knit, knit.

OK at, about 18 3/4" I stopped knitting and joined the two short ends together. I did this with an odd "grafting the live stitches to the cast on" move. I could have just bound off and sewn the ends together, but this would have made a thicker seam. I could have had an invisible graft if I had only thought to use a provisional cast on, but I didn't, and this is reasonably unobtrusive.

Using a short circular needle, I picked up one stitch from under each slipped edge stitch. I did this with the lumpier side of the seam towards the outside, because the garter cuff will be folded up when the hat is done.

Now I'm just going to knit round for a while.

La, la, la; round and round.

(edited to add: to learn how to work the top, jump to The Rest of the Story)