K3 P1 beanie question

[subiesailor]

So I am currently knitting a beanie and have been doing:

round 1: k3 p1
round 2: knit around

I have about 6 inches of body and now want to start decreasing. I have only been knitting for about a month and am not quite sure how to do this. I would like the cap to not have any folds at the top but be smooth.

Any advice as to what to do?

Thanks

[suzeeq]

It depends on how many sts you have as to how you begin. You find two numbers that divide into your stitch number and use them as the basis for your decreases. Hats usually work well when there's 8 (or 7 or 9) decreases around.

Say you have 80, if you do k8, k2tog that makes 8 decs around. Then you knit a plain row and the following row you would k7, k2tog. Still keeps the 8 decs, but you've got to go down one stitch between the k2togs. Dec the same way every other round, one st less between decs, until you're down to about 3 sts between them, then dec on every round until you have about 16 sts left. Then you cut a tail and thread it through the remaining stitches like a drawstring.

You can still keep the rib pattern going, but your ribs will shrink down to 2x1 then 1x1 and by then it won't matter if they're ribbed or not.

[subiesailor]

Thank you so much for that so my hat has 100 stitches. So if I am reading this right I would start off by k10 and then k2tog.

Now I would like to keep the rib going up to the top so what happens if I get to the k2tog and I have a knit and a pearl? do I just knit those two together and keep on with the pattern?

[suzeeq]

No, not k10, k2tog, that uses 12 sts at a time, you need to use only 10. So start out with k8, k2tog; that'll give you 10 decs around, but that should work out okay too. If you find you have to work a knit and purl together, decide if it would look better as k2tog or p2tog. At some point you'll have to sort of forget about keeping to the rib pattern because you won't be able too.