Today a wonderful knitter asked me something that made me realise that perhaps new knitters don't know a lot about adjusting patterns. I'll be the first to admit that I'm TERRIBLE at adjusting a pattern to be the right size. I just don't have it in me.
But what I DO think I know is how to adjust a patterned hat for a smaller or bigger size, and it's all cheating and math. That is one thing I love about knitting, all the numbers. You do the right math, you get the right things. Oh, it's joyful! Actually, I'm betting that adjusting most patterns is a lot like adjusting hat patterns.
I might need to ponder this for a minute.
In the meantime, let me offer this simple advice:
When you have a hat that you'd like to make bigger or smaller, there's only a few simple things you need to do. Well, this is the lazy way. You could do more measurement and math, but me? No way.
1. Find a hat pattern in the size you're looking for. If you're not on ravelry.com I need you to click that word, sign up, and come back to this blog in 3 hours when you need a break. Beware the "pattern browser" - it will steal an entire evening. Anyway, make sure that hat has a similar feature to your cast on edge, like ribbing, or knit top down.
2. Look at the hat pattern you want to adjust. Does it have a pattern repeat? A chart? Ribbing or cables? Things that require a specific number of stitches to complete one repeat. My friend's hat has a beautiful pattern that is 8 stitches wide and 12 rows high. I recently knit something that has a cable pattern of 10 stitches across and 6 rows high.
3. Do your cast on math to make sure it's divisible by the number of stitches for the pattern repeat. So, let's say you have a hat knitted in worsted weight and your cheat pattern says cast on 55 for the size you're looking for and you're doing the 8 stitch/12 row pattern. Well, 55 is not divisible by 8, and you'll have a wonky hat. However, 56 IS divisible by 8. Cast on 56. If your pattern wants you to cast on 92, take it down to 88 or up to 96. It's pretty easy.
4. Use cheat pattern to see how many inches you knit from the cast on edge, and what starts the decreases. K9, K2tog* or K7, K2tog, doesn't matter. The decreases for the larger or smaller hat will apply to the new size because it's based on the pattern repeats, not the actual number of stitches.
BUT what if you, say, see a scarf with a beautiful pattern repeat? You can make it into a hat! Just use the right "pattern math" to see how many stitches and rows something requires and then go NUTS. In fact, I'm working on a pattern myself. I know, a big deal right? Don't hold your breath though, I probably won't have it all hammered out until well after Christmas. Hopefully it'll be a scarf/hat combo. We'll see.
So what if you want to adjust a worsted weight pattern to bulky or sport weight? Well, that's another post and concerns things like gauge and needle size and I have to see if I even have it figured out. But I'll be honoured if this happens to be one of the blogs that pop up when you're googling how to actually do that.
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