Decreasing a hat that used to be in the round

[Pixywhispers]

Ok, let me getcha up to speed. I've got a baby hat pattern with eyelits. I tried doing it in the round, but ssk is not working for me on circs in this tiniest of diameter. There are 84 stitches, I'm going to add one stitch on each end so that I can seam it. So heres the question when it comes time to decrease how should I compensate?

My idea is to just k2tog at the begining and end of the first decrease row. Does this sound correct?

[Marnie]

You shouldn't have to change anything about the decreases, you are only adding an extra stitch for seaming purposes and your need to seam won't change when you begin decreasing. Proceed as directed, remembering to work the extra stitch before following the pattern instructions.

[TwoLeftNeedles]

Do the decrease one stitch after the beginning of the row and one stitch before the last stitch so that your two selvedge stitches are not involved in the decrease. This will make seaming much easier.

Note that if you change a ssk to a k2tog, the decrease is going to slant in the opposite direction. That is, instead of your seam line having decreases that slant toward each other looking like:

/\
/\
/\

it's going to have decreases that slant in the same direction and look like

//
//
//

[Pixywhispers]

Thanks Marnie and TLN.