I am knitting a simple hat with circular needles and I don’t really know how to decrease yet. I know the concept of it, knit two stitches together etc. But I don’t know when to knit two together. So I have a total of 80 stitches. Can you tell me, specifically, when to decrease and when to knit normally? For this pattern I knit two and purled two. Thanks for any help!
If you are following a pattern., the pattern will tell you when to decrease. Otherwise, you will knit until you have the hat the length you want it to be. That could be 6" or it could be 8"–or it could be more. If you want the top of the hat shaped, you’d start decreasing at that point.
You can, of course, just gather the hat by cutting the yarn, threading the yarn into a tapestry needle, and running the yarn through all the stitches, then pulling the stitches tight. That will produce a puffy top.
If you want it shaped, though, the usual way to do it is the divide the hat into segments and decrease each segment evenly. You’d need to divide the number of stitches by a number that divides into it evenly. For example, with 80 stitches, you can have 10 segments of 8 stitches, 8 segments of 10 stitches, 5 segments of 16 stitches, 4 segments of 20 stitches, or 2 segments of 40 stitches. Using 10 segments of 8 stitches will decrease very rapidly. Using 2 segments of 40 stitches will decrease very slowly. Probably the most practical division would be 8 segments of 10 stitches or 5 segments of 16 stitches.
Let’s say you decide on 8 segments of 10 stitches. To do the first decrease, you would knit 8 and knit 2 together, using up 10 stitches. Then you would repeat around–knit 8, knit 2 together. That’s abbreviated k8, k2tog. Then you’d knit a round. Then you’d have 8 segments of 9 stitches, so the next round would be k7, k2tog and repeat around. Then knit a round. Then k6, k2tog. Then knit a round. Then k5, k2tog. Then k a round. Next round, k4, k2tog. Next round, k. Next round, k3, k2tog. Next round, k. Next round, k2, k2tog. Next round, k. Next round, k1, k2tog. Next round k. Final round, k2tog. You would then have 8 stitches left. Cut the yarn, leaving about 12" to 18" of yarn. Thread it into a tapestry needle and run it through the 8 stitches, then go around again, pull the yarn tight and fasten off.