How do I alter an infant hat knitting pattern to fit an adult?

March 6, 2007 12:51 AM

I found the best hat pattern ever, but it is designed for an infant's cranium. If I want to knit one that will fit my rather sizable noggin, what should I do to the pattern?

This is the coolest pattern ever, but I want to knit a hat for a normal adult sized head rather than a child sized head! You can check out the pattern at http://www.poormojo.org/cgi-bin/gennie.pl?Squid+232+bi
I'm not a great knitter, so while I can do everything in the instructions (probably) altering patterns hasn't worked so well for me in the past. The last hat pattern I altered ended up sized for a polar bear rather than my cousin.

Any help or tips? Thank you!

posted by stewiethegreat to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

Hmm, based on the 6.5 sts/inch gauge, that hat is about 12.5 inches at the brim. Which is pretty tiny, even for a newborn! But it may stretch a bit.

Anyway, you could theoretically make the pattern without any adjustments at all, if you can get a gauge that will give you a hat that fits. Usually, you measure around your head, and then knit an inch or two slightly smaller to allow for stretching. I usually knit hats to 20" for my head (smallish adult female size). If you can get 4 sts/inch, that will give you a 20" hat without having to change anything about the pattern.

So I'd get yarn that isn't too fine, and aim for that 4 sts/inch gauge, and then just knit the pattern as written. Easy!

You can also do math for this -- say your gauge is 5 sts/inch, and you want your hat to be 21 inches at the brim -- you'll have to end up with about 105 stitches at the brim. 105 is 80 (the original stitch count at the brim -- 30 + 10 + 30 + 10) x 1.3, almost. (104, but close enough). So you could take the numbers in the pattern and multiply by 1.3, rounding where necessary. But honestly, since the pattern doesn't call for a specific yarn anyway, I'd just go with a heavy worsted or something and aim for that 4 sts/inch gauge to avoid the math. ;)

Thanks for showing us that pattern, though -- it's really cute! And I have some babies to knit for, since it seems that lots of people I know are having them lately.
posted by litlnemo at 3:18 AM on March 6, 2007

I would suggest picking your yarn first. Both row and stitch gauge are important for hats, because they need to be the right length from brim to crown, but not toooooo important, because you can add or subtract repeats from some hat patterns. This doesn't have pattern repeats as such, but it does have that fun, extreme point at the top, so just using a thicker yarn might give you a way taller hat than you need. Also, they don't tell you how tall the hat gets (as far as I can tell) but the tippy top of the hat doesn't sit on the tippy top of the hat. So, not critical, but if you're off by a lot it could be disaster.


I note that there is a link for need advice . Thank link brings you to the form to ask questions of the squid. They might be able to put you in touch with the designer.

If you can't get in touch with the designer, my advice is to play with it, you know, yarn you like, needles that work with the yarn you like, adjusting the decreases so they look nice and make the hat fit your head. I could sit down and figure out how to make the hat fit on my own head, because I have it here. I'd be awfully embarassed if I did all that math and guessed that it would fit your head and it didn't. So, make friends with the calculator and here's the math you need.

Gauge (really for 100% best accuracy, do a stockinette gauge, at least 4 inches square (so I say, oh, I'm shooting for 6.5 stitches to the inch, we'll round that up to 7 stitches x4 inches is 28 stitches to cast on. Stockinette away till it's about 4 inches tall, and then count how many inches you really got in your gauge, then divide by the number of stitches into the number of inches.

Next, measure your head. There are hat knitting books out there that will tell you how to do this.

Now, take the number of inches around your head and multiply it by the number of stitches you get in just one inch of flat knitting.

That number is your total number of stitches to have at the cast on of your hat.

This hat is two pieces sewn together, which would drive me insane, and also means that you have to divide the number above by two, and work out the math with the two stitches for the tentacles.

And, you might want to make the tentacles wider, since, you know, you're not a baby!

From there, it's all about your decrease rate, which is up to you, aesthetically.
posted by bilabial at 4:32 AM on March 6, 2007

Yeah, I was trying to keep it as simple as possible, but there is a lot you could do if you wanted, like changing the width of the tentacles, etc.

bilabial is right that the height might need to be adjusted a bit -- that does make it more complicated, but on the other hand, an adult hat needs to be taller than a baby hat, so even my simpler method (of just aiming for a 4 sts/inch gauge) might still be what you need, especially since the top of the hat is not right on the top of your head. Just realize that it might not and you might have to adjust the proportions a bit as you go.

The cool thing about a hat is that it knits up quickly, so you can experiment -- if it doesn't fit you the first time, it will probably fit someone else. ;) And then you can try again using what you learned to get it right. Or rip back and try again.

(When I knit this I'm just going to simplify it. I don't want to deal with the two pieces.)
posted by litlnemo at 4:51 AM on March 6, 2007

If you're feeling adventurous, you could also try finding a plain adult-sized hat pattern and tweaking it to incorporate the squid-like parts of it.
posted by Lucinda at 4:57 AM on March 6, 2007

ya, when I make it, I'll be doing it in the round, and I'll probably pick up for the tentacles and knit them bottom down, rather than knit them and hold them for later. I'd lose 'em.

And I think Lucinda wins for brevity and correctness of answer.
posted by bilabial at 5:31 AM on March 6, 2007

Thanks, guys. It is a pretty fun hat, isn't it? I'm getting more nervous about my ability to knit it, though, as I reread the pattern with your comments in mind. My most ambitious project to date was a green hat that said Matt Matt Matt Matt in red yarn (Matt had a big head).
posted by stewiethegreat at 8:33 AM on March 6, 2007

6.5sts/inch is really quite small, as most people have observed in here. (size 6 needles or smaller?) The pattern says ~80sts around the head, and typically when I make an adult hat, I do ~60sts on size 10 needles.

I'm guessing you could pick up some thicker yarn (specifically yarn that recommends 9-10 size needles -- usually 3.5 or 3sts/inch) and follow the pattern exactly and get a fine looking adult size hat.
posted by lastyearsfad at 1:05 PM on March 6, 2007