Any way to tighten hat band?

[Rainy113]

I've read a few remarks on the line of "you can always tighten stitches but you can't loosen them." So I'm wondering - how do you tighten them? I have a beanie hat that did the band in 2x2 rib, then stockinette for the rest. I know I should have used smaller needles for the band but forgot. It's loose and wants to curl. Is there any way after the fact to tighten it? No big deal - it was really just practice. But is there a way?

[suzeeq]

You can either cut a stitch above the ribbing, put the first round of stockinette on needles and reknit it with smaller needle. Or pull some elastic thread through 2-3 rounds of the stitches on the WS.

[Rainy113]

I'm not sure what you mean by cut a stitch. Do you mean to unravel the brim and do it again as though I were knitting from the top of the hat down? Will knitting unravel backwards? I'm sure I've got this all wrong. Is there a video or something that could illustrate this?

I'm really finding this site valuable since I have no one near me that knits!

[suzeeq]

Yes, cut one stitch to begin unraveling, putting the hat sts on a needle and rip out the ribbing. Then you reknit from the top down and BO the ribbing. You can't take out the CO and unravel the rib in that direction, but if you undo it where the rib and hat meet it can be done. There's a tutorial at the Techknitting blog.

[Rainy113]

Oh thanks for the link. That explains it well. I've only been at this a few weeks so I don't think I'm ready for that yet! But it's good to know there is a way.