Hat issue..

[XxavoOo]

I finished a hat I've been doing which I repeated because it was TOO big. However, I have the same problem that happened with the first one.

The top of the hat is all wrinkled, with this flower-looking appearance. The bind off is pulling together the hat and kind of stretching it. Is there a way to prevent this, or is this normal? Did I do something wrong? (it was knit on the round, bottom->up, I did some decrease rounds)

(I tried to upload a picture of it, but it doesn't show..)

[AngelaR]

Is there any way you can post the decrease directions of the pattern?

[Jan in CA]

Are you saying that top of the hat isn't nice and rounded, but kind of gathered? If that's the case then you need to do your decreases differently. How many did you cast on?

[XxavoOo]

Before decreasing, I had 164 sts on the needles. The decrease rounds were:

1) [K3, K2tog] until end of round
2) K round
3) [K2, K2tog] until end of round
4) K round
5) [K1, K2tog] until end of round
6) K round
7) [K3, K2tog] until end of round
8) [K2, K2tog] until end of round
9) [K1, K2tog] until end of round
10) [K2tog] until end of round
11) [K2tog] until end of round

Then I cut the yarn and passed it through the stitches twice.

[Jan in CA]

When you do decreases like that it tends to decrease too quickly and creates the gathers. If you decrease slower...less per row you can create a rounder top. That's a lot of stitches so I'm not sure how you'd decrease for that.. What weight yarn is it? Fingering weight..like sock yarn?

[suzeeq]

First do a decrease round that decs 4 sts so you have 160 to start with - k22, k2tog, k20, k2tog, k20, k2tog, k20, k2tog and 2 sts left at the end.

Then start decreases for the top
k8, k2tog around, knit a round plain.
K7, k2tog around, knit a round
k6, k2tog around, knit a round
keep going with 1 less st between decreases, and a knit round between the dec rounds. When you get to 3 sts between the dec, dec on every round k2tog on every round and when you're down to about 20 sts, then put the tail through all the sts. See if that's better