Swatch Me Make a New Hat

Knitting a Hat with two strands of yarn

For a number of different reasons, hats are one of my favorite things to make.  Mittens will probably be a close second once I finish my first pair of cable mittens and figuring out how to make the right and left mitten different, but the same…you knitters will understand what I mean by that.  With hats being such a joy of mine, I often make and give them as gifts.  Most of my family likes getting new hats, as I learn new skills and can vary up the designs.  But some have asked for more warmth.  So with this next hat, I’m working on knitting with two strands of yarn instead of one.  This called for a dreaded swatch.

After knitting enough hats, I pretty much have the gauge down for the people in my family with worsted weight yarn, but with doubling up on the yarn, that creates a whole new challenge.  Normally I hate knitting a swatch and feel like it’s a solid waste of time, but this case, I’m glad that I did…because it still took some trial and error to get it to feel right.  Let me explain.

Using my trusty little knitting gauge from Knit Picks, which helps you count the stitches and rows in a two inch section, I created a swatch in 2X2 ribbing (Knitting two and then purling two stitches).

In a two inch section it looked like there were about 20 stitches, but it wasn’t exact.  So I did the match (which is terrifying for me) for a 24 inch circumference and figured it would take about 120 stitches…but that sounded huge.

Forging ahead, I tried it out, and after a few rows it did look huge.  This is happened to me once before and I opted to go back to a single strand of yarn.

This time I’m not backing down though, so I took out a few stitches and cast on 106 and have started working the brim.  It looks like it’s going to work out okay – which is why I said it “feels” right.  As you know, I won’t know the true fit until I cast it off of the needles and try it on.

Worst case it’s too small and I keep it for myself.  That would be terrible right? WRONG. I have a hard time keeping my knits so it would be great.  Making this a win win situation as I test out a new way to knit my hats!

Any votes on types of cable or stitching for this baby? I have a few in mind…the person that this hat is intended for is pretty fashion forward and I am not…so while the gauge and the swatch might not be causing me anxiety, the rest of the hat is at the moment.