Tips for knitting my hats….
Yarn - fingering weight yarn is required for my hats. I love Jagger Spun 2/8 Maine Line wool. Knit Picks also makes a great fingering weight wool called Palette. Left-over bits of sock yarn do the job, and make a washable hat, if you can find the right solid colors.
Cast on -- I start each hat with 160 stitches and a rolled hem, using a long-tail cast-on. This cast-on takes about 3 yards of yarn or slightly less. Sometimes I haven't pulled out enough yarn for the long-tail cast on, but if I can at least cast on 140 stitches, I can increase the extra 20 before I start the corrugated ribbing and get away with that. Who doesn't love a good fudge!?
Corrugated rib - people usually find it easier to purl with the right hand, so I suggest doing the purls right-handed (throwing) and the knits left-handed (picking).
Increases - I prefer the method of increasing where you lift a stitch from a stitch below - a "lifted increase". When increasing from 160 stitches to 180, *knit 8 stitches, lift a stitch from below the 8th stitch and knit it, repeat from *.
Stranding - It is important to remember to weave in your floats in order to keep the work from puckering. I never knit more than 3 stitches without weaving in, as I learned from Ann & Eugene Bourgeois, in "Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified". www.philosopherswool.com
Never switch hands! Always take note of which color you are carrying in which hand, so that when you have to set your work down and come back to it later, it doesn't change. It DOES make a difference in the finished work. The color carried in the left hand will stand out slightly more than the one in the right hand.
Though I personally prefer to use 16" circular needles and then double-pointed needles to close the tops, this is only a personal preference. You may choose to use 40" circulars and the "Magic Loop" method. This will eliminate the need for dpns.
Gauge - if you want the hat to fit differently you can use different sized needles. If stranded work tends to work up loosely in your hands, use smaller needles. Often people find that stranded work tends to get tighter, so they will want larger needles. If your "hipster" would like a floppier hat, knit the body with size 4 needles.
Child sizes - feel free to play around, but I have successfully worked a child-sized hat by casting on 140 stitches for the ribbing, and then increase enough stitches to work one less repeat than originally intended. So long as this is slightly more than 140, it should make a nice hat. You may also want to work out a way to make the hat shorter to fit your child. Get out some graph paper and play around with the design a little - and send me a picture!!
