Why are the ribs on my crocheted hat so slim?

May 24, 2015 12:10 PM

I was trying to make this hat, but it turned out like this. The hat in the video has the ribs bunched together, and they only show up when stretched. On the hat I created, the ribs always stand out and look stretched. I used 100% acrylic double knitting wool and a 4mm OR a 6mm hook (can't remember which). What did I do wrong?
posted by Solomon to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

It looks like it could be one or more of a few things. Maybe your hook was too big, your yarn was too thin, or your stitches were too loose. When you made it, did you try it on many times? That may have stretched out your stitches, making it easier for you to make them loose in the next rounds. Sometimes it's just the yarn that you use - she mentioned in the video that her yarn was pretty "shiny", meaning I think that it was pretty smooth & slick, so it'd more easily slip over itself and scrunch back up. But if your yarn is fuzzy and likely to felt or pill a bit, the stitches would stay stretched out a little as they catch on each other, and that can build up over the rows, leading to looser stitches, particularly if you're manipulating the fabric a lot to find were to place your back post dcs. How does it look when you try it on? If it's good on your head, you didn't do anything "wrong".
posted by Mizu at 12:28 PM on May 24, 2015

I can't watch the video with sound at the moment, so not sure if it specifies yarn weight, but (as a knitter) that definitely looks like chunky yarn. It's a thicker yarn, so is more "squishy" and has more leeway to stretch like they do in the video. You look like you're using worsted weight which has fewer strands twisted together so is less "squishy."

However, I think your hat looks great as is. It will be less insulating, but has great tension and looks nice.

Lastly, I go on reddit for very few things, but r/knitting is a great community, and I can only assume r/crochet is likewise wonderful. They were great when I first started knitting and helped sort out all of my questions!
posted by DoubleLune at 1:51 PM on May 24, 2015

DK is fairly light weight yarn. Looking at the video, I think she's using at least worsted if not chunky weight yarn.
posted by augustimagination at 6:48 PM on May 24, 2015

I had a look at the Crochet tutorial, which is based on a knitted hat pattern by Red Heart (youtube tutorial here, written instructions here (PDF)). In the knitted hat written instructions, the yarn specified is 'Medium'. DK is a 'Light' yarn (see chart half way down here).

It looks like the crochet tutorial used a thicker yarn than you ('Medium', whereas you used 'Light'), which has made your hat fabric less dense and springy. (If you crochet a thick yarn on a small hook, the fabric will be dense like a spring. If you use a thinner yarn or a bigger hook, the fabric will be less tightly stitched -- like a coil of wire -- and less springy).

This is a good youtube summary of the differences caused by different sized hooks and yarn! Have fun making things!
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 3:39 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: (Also, none of this is obvious when you start following new patterns, so don't worry, every fibre artist has tales of horror and wasted days/months/years on things that turned out very wrong)
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 3:44 AM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I'm trying again, with some actual chunky wool and a 10mm hook, and it's looking much better. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through, but the ribs are definitely forming better and are, for want of a better word, chunkier. Thanks for your help.
posted by Solomon at 7:23 AM on June 9, 2015