Circular Needles for Hat Question

[Gspice]

I am wanting to start knitting in circular needles for hats , this will be my first time. I am really sick and tired of the knitter looms, they don't come out how I want them. And it seems that using circular needs will look more neat, from what I have seen

I have found that they come with 16", 24", 29", and 29", the cable area. If that makes sense.

I want to make hats for kids and adults. I know I want to do them on a 8 USA needles. But which circular needles do I need for these kind of hats? The 16" and the 24" or all of them?

[Jan in CA]

16 in are the only ones you can use for hats, the others are too large. You'll also need some double pointed needles (DPN) for the top part when you decrease. If you haven't used them don't be afraid.. learning to use them with hat is the best and easiest way.

Just for the record, there are a couple other methods for making things in the round and can be used for hats.. Magic Loop and using two circs. Both methods can be researched on the tabs at the top of the page under advanced techniques. I think in this case the 16 in and DPN are your best bet though.

[dakatzmeow]

i would get one single looooooooong needle and magic loop all my hats. kids or adults, you can use the same needle.

[suzeeq]

You don't have to get one that's really really long for Magic loop. A 30-36" should work just fine.

[Gspice]

Okay so 16" is the best for adult and kid hats. Now what makes that size fits both kids and adults? Is it the number of cast on? How many cast ons do you need for a kids and how many do you need for an adult. Thanks everyone for answering my questions.

[Orangeus]

the length of the needle (16", 29" and so on) is how long it is, measured from tip to tip. So, if you want to knit something that is 20" around (smallish hat size), you would use the 16".

Now, if you are using Magic loop, you only need one semi-long needle, like others said, and this will be able to make a hat of any circumference. Same goes for two circulars, only difference is you need two needles instead of the one.

Now, I really don't know how big a kids' head would be, but if the hat is going to be smaller than 16 inches around, you will either need to knit the hat on DPNs, magic loop or two circular needles.

As for how much to cast on, this entirely depends on your needle size, the yarn you are using, and how tightly you are knitting. The way I go about figuring out how many to cast on, is to knit a little swatch (say, cast on what looks like 4 or so inches, in width, knit in stockinette until it is a few inches in length) and measure across the width how many stitches you get per inch (SPI) (it is more accurate to measure this over two or more inches, and then divide to get per inch, but for hats, this is not crucial).

Once you figure out how many SPI you are getting, figure out how many inches around you hat is going to be (aka, measure the persons head at the widest point). Then all you have to do is multiply the SPI by this measurement. That is how many you need to cast on

And one final thing. If you are knitting a really stretchy hat (like, entirely in ribbing), then you will want you Final Hat Measurement to be a few less than the persons actual head.
So say you are getting five stitches per inch, and the head your knitting for is 23 inches around. Rather than casting on 115 stitches (5 x 23), I would cast on between 100-110, depending on the stretch factor.

Hope this helps (and I hope I didn't ramble on too much either)!

[suzeeq]

I think the general rule for CO sts for a hat is about 90% of the head size. So for 23", you'd want about 20" worth of stitches.

[losnana]

i would get one single looooooooong needle and magic loop all my hats. kids or adults, you can use the same needle.

Me too!