3 Steps to Knit a Hat
Hats are cool accessories! If you are an experienced knitter you can make one in your colours, in your favorite yarn Knitting a hat? The project might sound easy but far from it, knitting hats are a challenge, especially for beginners in the knitting world. But, once you are in love with the craft, there is no stopping. Given the right set of knitting needles, you can knit hats easily.
Before we move forward with our hat knitting guide, let me shine some light on the needle material, sizes and yarn.
Step 1 – Choosing a Yarn
When it comes to knitting, yarn is the most important thing. For knitting hats, the style, the season and even the person who shall wear the hat also are deciding factors when choosing yarn.
While many knitters prefer to use wool and acrylic blends to knit warm hats, there are many other options. Cotton yarn is preferred for babies and summer wear. For yarn weight, we recommend either worsted or bulky weight yarn. Super bulky yarn is also an option but stay away from jumbo yarn as it will be too chunky for such a small project. Appropriate-sized knitting needles for each weight make the perfect hat.
Step 2 – Choosing Knitting Needles
Material - Every knitter has a preference when it comes to needle material. The same applies when taking up the project of knitting a hat. Some knitters find metal or stainless steel comfortable, others are fond of wood or bamboo. Acrylic and carbon is also popular choice for their benefits. There is no right and wrong to the choice of the material of a knitting needle for hats.
Needle Length - In terms of length, circular needles of 16″ (40 cm) will be ideal for most hats. If you are knitting a tiny little hat for a baby 12″ (30 cm) circular needles are the perfect fit. The length of double-pointed needles for knitting a hat is 8″ (15 cm) to 10″ (20 cm) for adults. For the small size hats, 4″ or 6″ inches knitting needles will suffice. For knitting hats, whether you use circulars or double-pointed, take a smaller size needle for cast-on the project while for the rest of the project knit with the recommended size.
Step 3 – Following a Pattern or Figuring Out the Stitches
If you have found yourself a pattern, get started. Read the instructions and
Planning to knit a hat without a pattern, it’s best that start with a small gauge with either your circular needles or double pointed ones. The knitted gauge must be blocked properly to understand and calculate the number of stitches. In order to figure out how many stitches to cast on, follow these steps:
Measure the circumference of the head the hat is intended for with a tape measure.
Multiply the head circumference by the number of stitches you got per inch of your knitted gauge.
Consider negative ease of knitting, therefore multiply the number by 85% and not 100%.
Round to the closest multiple that suits the ribbing of your choice (1x1 or 2x2 ribs, etc.).
Before you cast on, calculate the decrease of the crown of the hat with stitches in multiples of either 7, 8, 9 or 10.
So, now that you have all information, get started, knit a hat.
