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Posted by karlisa on October 10, 2006, 6:42 pm
Leah wrote:
> Hi Karlisa,
>
> >I am making a hat for my son--very simple little pumpkin hat on double
> >pointed needles for his Halloween costume. I made one for my younger
> >son, but the directions I have are only for a small child. I cannot
> >find one for an adult size head. My oldest son is 4 years old and has
> >a rather large head (21"). I'm making the hat out of an orange
> >bulky-weight yarn on 10 1/2 needles and getting a gauge of 4 stitches
> >per inch. My question: Is there a rule-of-thumb for how big to make a
> >hat based on the stretch factor? In other words, I don't think I would
> >necessarily want to make his hat 21" but a bit smaller to allow for the
> >stretch. If this is correct, is there a general rule-of-thumb for this
> >or a percentage of stretch I should allow for? I realize that K2, P2
> >ribbing is much stretchier than stocking stitch. The hat I'm making is
> >just a roll brim in stocking stitch, though. How does one go about
> >factoring in the stretch when planning a pattern? I would love to make
> >more of these hats and not feel tethered to a set of instructions every
> >time. I hope I've worded this properly. Any assistance would be
> >greatly appreciated!
>
> I have a machine knit pattern for a roll brim hat that is made in
> worsted weight with a gauge of 4 stitches per inch and sized for a
> child age 3-6, child age 7-10, and adult. It's a stocking stitch
> pattern, because that's what this KM produces, and you cast on 70
> stitches for the child 3-6, 78 stitches for the child 7-10, and 86
> stitches for the adult size. That means the adult roll brim hat is
> about 21.5 inches around, just a little larger than you said your
> son's head is, while the child 7-10 should be only about 19.5 inches
> around, and the smallest child's only 17.5 inches.
>
> Also, the knitting machine's basic book has instructions for their
> doubled earwarmer, and the child 3-6 calls for 58 sts, child 7-10 is
> 66 sts, and adult is 76 sts cast on.
>
> So, the pattern seems to be add about 8 sts/2 inches for each size
> increase when working with worsted weight at a gauge of 4 sts per inch
> with no ribbing involved. If it were me, I'd probably go with the
> older child's (7-10) size and knit a good sized swatch in scrap yarn
> and try it out on his head for fit and comfort before committing to
> the entire project.
>
> HTH!
>
> Leah
Thanks, Leah! It's always been difficult fitting my son for hats,
especially when he was a little baby (head always measured in the 90th
percentile) and getting his head through openings in shirts and
sweaters that don't have button plackets is a challenge still. I'll
experiment and see what the child 7-10 measurement produces. If it
doesn't fit, I'll just add it to my growing charity hats collection.
Fortunately, this hat knits up fairly quickly!
lisa
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