centered double decrease on a hat ?

[ionictoaster]

So. Because I have a habit of feeding my frustration by knitting without a pattern, I'm making a nice little hat. I want to do an interesting little decrease at the top, to make it look something like this:


(taken from the Schmeebot website)

I decided I wanted to make this quite a while ago, but I gave up because I was too confused on what was going on

I'm attempting it for real this time though. My only problem is that I really just don't know how to do it.

From a little researching, it looks like you just use a "centered double decrease", explained on this site as slip2, k1, slip both slipped stitches over.

Starting with 80sts, I was thinking, knitting every other round:

*k17, centered double dec*
*k15, centered double dec*
*k13, centered double dec*
...etc etc

Is this right? Anybody have ANY ideas at all?

Thanks =)

[janelanespaintbrush]

I used that decrease on a hat recently and it worked out well. (I got tired of the "light spiral" look that you get with k2tog.) I did 6 CDDs every other round instead of the 4 you plan -- it was a pretty arbitrary choice, really. 4 should be okay too. If it looks like the hat is getting too pointy, you can always adjust your rate of decreasing.

[suzeeq]

That looks more like a k2tog, ssk dec done 4 times.

sue

[Chrissie]

Those just look like regular raglan-type decreases....so on the hat, place 4 markers evenly around when you are ready to decrease. When you get to two stitches before the marker, SSK. Then slip the marker over, K1, then K2tog. Knit one round even between each decrease round.

[suzeeq]

That's what I meant - ssk, k2tog. I often get confused as to which goes first, but when I'm knitting I get it right....

sue

[janelanespaintbrush]

Oops, I'm sorry. You said you wanted your hat to look "something" like the one in the picture, and then mentioned the central double decrease (CDD), so I thought that's what you were interested in. If you want it to look exactly like the picture, I agree that the double decrease used there looks like two paired single decreases separated by a single knit stitch. If you use the CDD (aka "straight decrease" or "double vertical decrease") that you mentioned in your OP (sl2 tog, k1, pass slipped stitches over), the look will be a little different -- you'll get one bold central stitch rather than two slanted decreases surrounding a single knit stitch. I like the look of the neat little lines created by CDDs, but what you choose boils down to personal preference more than anything else. (If you want to see even more choices for double decreases, consult a knitting text. There are lots!)

An example of a hat using CDDs.

P.S. to anyone interested in learning how to do a CDD: Amy has a video in the glossary section that you might want to check out.

[ionictoaster]

Have I mentioned that this forum is pretty much amazing? Because it is.

You guys are all so quick to respond, as well as extremely helpful! So thanks! =D

Anyway, I will definitely try that raglan-type decrease. I really like the looks of it, and hopefully it will give my hat a little more style. They're usually pretty boring lol

I'll even try to remember and post some pictures!

Thanks again!