Knitting Hats in the round WITHOUT dpns?

You can knit a tube to the desired length and then sew the one end in a plus/cross (+) to make the top. I believe there is a name for this, but it escapes me. I'm sure there are patterns online and others will post them. Wish I could be more help. Knitting hats is one of the few knitting projects I'm good at. ;-)

/J

You can use circs to knit just a few stitches around, but I think 16" are too short.

sue

Until you're well in practice, I'd say knit a tube and close the top flat, then either put a pompom on each corner or sew the two corners to the middle.

The easiest possible pattern: cast on enough stitches to go around your head and knit back and forth for a couple of rows. This will make a garter stitch band. Test to be sure it's the right size. Then join without twisting; you can sew the little slit together with the 'tail' of the yarn if you want to. Knit around and around until it's long enough - try it on to check the length.

To decrease once the hat is smaller than the circular needles, pull a small amount of the middle of the circular needle out between two stitches and just keep knitting around. It's called the 'magic loop' method. Once you get down to just a few stitches, either bind them off together or sew/graft/kitchener them together.

There's another way, but it's a little trickier. Start in the middle with as few stitches as you can manage with the magic loop, and leave a tail of yarn about a foot long. Increase stitches - make one at six places in the circle - every row at first, then every other row. When it's big enough to go around your head, start knitting straight without increasing. When it's long enough (allow for turning up an edge if you want to do that) you can decide how to make the brim: ribbing? Turn back and hem? seed stitch? just bind off very loosely and let it curl? Do whatever you decide, and then go back and flatten the middle and sew up the hole with that long tail.

Don't forget you can do stripes either randomly or planned. If you want to, you can pick up some stitches at the side edges and knit flat earflaps.

Have fun! Make lots of hats!

=Tamar

If you knit a tube , even on a circular you can either start with a narrower tuve and increase stiches , or decrease some , and collect/gather the narrower side with a thread and pompom,,,, Years ago the Ariadne , had a pattern for a Pony tail hat , that was a tube , with a row of holes on the upper side , you wore it over your head , pulled your pony tail out of the hat and closed it around the pony tail ,, was rather cute ,, i think it was in the 60s. You might of course knit the very neat hat from the book "Module Magic " which is knitted like a trapez. In the round hats can also be knitted with short rows ,,,, Gee haven`t done this in ages ..... Measure you head from ear to ear ,,, than the circumference ... Divide Ear to ear into 2 ,,, that is the height of your hat , now guague and cast on 1/3 of needed stiches for your hat height ... knit all the time all the hat ,,,, knit the short [1/3 ] to and back now cast on another 1/3 ,, insert mark between the 2 groups ,, knit to and back the 2/3 , knit to and the now cast on the last 1/3 [inser mark ] knit to and back , now knit [always to and back] , 2/3 , the 1/3 , the

Thanks to everyone who answered my question. I'll have to sit and figure yours out though, Mirjam. I'm going to have fun experimenting and, as I tell my daughter I'll have to "practice, practice, practice".

Bonnie

Bonnie , i hope to be of help to all ,,, i really like it ,, thus if anything bugs you just SHOUT ,,,,, Practice is fun ,,, yesterday went to dentist and took a new wool i bought [ shame on me just Couldn`t leave that Beautiful possible shirt for me saty in the shop ,,, and she gave it in 2/3 of the price ,,] But i wasn`t sure about needle sized thus i took some [dp since they are shorte] needles and swatched happily , while waiting ,and crocheted as well ,,, 3 surprised faces looked at my doing,, at last one elder lady asked ,, ;Don`t you know how to knit that you only knit severl rows with diferent colored needles ??? i said i am swatching ? , "why ?" says lady "the Magazine will tell you exactly what to do ??? , or maybe you can`t read ?" ....practice , practice ,,, patience for all those questions ,,,,,, Ps the color i bought is very light green, blue , something peaceful that will match some of my skirts, the colored ones as well as some of my monochromo ones,,,, i just like it ,,, the manufactureer says 3.5 mm , but i found 4.5 and maybe even 5 works for me , it is soft and lovely , now to think up some pattern ,, i have a wavy feeling in my head ,, want it but it will takes ages to knit ,, thus maybe a not so wavy pattern and on the side ,,,,, ,,,nice leafing in pattern books ,,, Jummy , Thus Bonnie have fun and practice ,,,, mirjam

oh well done you, there are lots of hats to be made on circs, so no doubt you'll have fun and lots of pointers from the others on the group. You don't need to have dpns for a hat why have the bother of changing needles when you can just sit and knit continuously.

I have just started doing one that is a little wider by four stitches than normal, then I'm doing it twice as long, changing colours at the halfway mark, this can then be used as a reversable hat, and double the layered means double the warmth.