Basic beanie calculations (bottom up knit hat) November 2, 2012

Recently, I made the android hat which is basically a basic bottom up knit beanie with antennas attached. I realised that the measurements are to my own head size only. Depending on the size of your head and the type of yarn used, the number of stitches will be different.

So I decided to write up the basic measurement method which is easily customised to whatever headsize there is (or at least, this is how I figured out my measurement).

Basic bottom up knit beanie hat calculations

1. Measure around the circumference of your head.

Mine came to 22 inches (holy crap I have a big head).

2. Knit a gauge swatch with your preferred yarn with the corresponding size needles for the yarn. For my android hat, my gauge was 5 stitches per inch.

22 x 5 = 110.

However, my ribbed rows were 2 x 2, so I needed the cast on stitches to be in multiples of 4. So, I have to either subtract 2 or add 2 to 110 to get a multiple of 4.

In my case, I dropped 2 stitches since I don’t want the hat to be too lose as I didn’t change the needle size for the whole hat, so I got 108 stitches for my cast on.

3. Measure from your hairline to your earlobe. If you don’t have hair, just use your imagination where your hairline will be. 😛 But hairlines differ on individuals. So perhaps 2 inches above your eyebrows. If you don’t have eyebrows, use your imagination as well. 😛  ……….. don’t really know how to put this into words, but it’s from the part where your head starts rounding up to the top!

Cast on, join the round, knit the ribbed rows for an inch or more if you want more ribbed rows. Then switch to stockinette stitch or whichever stitch pattern you prefer. (If you are using some other stitch pattern that is fancier than plain old stockinette, you will have to do recalculations for the cast on. Patterns are usually repeats of a certain number of stitches, but same concept! Just have to do a little math. If you are capable of knitting fancy patterns, I’m sure you can figure this out! :P)

Knit your way up till the hat reaches this measurement then start to reduce. Use a stitch marker to mark every new row.

4. To reduce, divide your cast on stitches with the lowest possible whole number to get a single digit whole  number.

Eg. 108 / 12 = 9 

I will reduce my hat every 12 stitches and I will do this every alternate row.

So, to start reducing, I knit 10 stitches followed by knit 2 together. Repeat until you reach row marker. Then knit the whole of next row. Then reduce again, knit 9 stitches, knit 2 together, repeat till you reach row marker .. etc. Until you have 9 remaining stitches on your needles.

5. Cut your yarn to leave a little for sewing in. Thread the end through a yarn needle and sew through the remaining 9 stitches. Pull firmly and sew in the remaining yarn into the underside of your hat.

There you go, easy peasy knit beanie calculation.  You can use this to customise any hat you want, eg. my android hat. Or … make your own PANDA hat! Or anything you want! Any colour! Any size! Anything creative you can think of!

Happy knitting! TGIF! YAY! 😀