This was my first time doing a tubular cast on. I used this method (which saved me the trouble of doing a provincial cast on.)
I was concerned that the brim would be too tight, but I slipped stitches off the needle to try it on my head and it feels okay. (Phew!)
Learning to knit backwards is a really helpful technique for entrelac knitting. This way you don't have to constantly turn your work, making the knitting much faster. I also find it useful to use an extra double pointed needle to pick up the stitches.
The designer of this entrelac hat designed a formula to help you create this hat with any yarn and gauge. You can no longer input your numbers onto the blog page itself, but the designer provided the formulas so you can create your own spreadsheet. I set mine up in a google document so you can do your own entrelac cap calculations. Please edit only the cells shaded in yellow. The other values will be automatically updated to tell you how many stitches to cast on etc.
I knit this hat with James C. Brett Marble Chunky Color MC12 using size 7 knitting needles (I used the gauge from the fingerless mitts knit in the same yarn to help with this.) This yarn is PERFECT for entrelac.
My Spreadsheet Results:
- Measurements (These are the values that you measure from your swatch and then input into the spreadsheet):
- Head Circumference 21.1 inches
- Swatch Stitches 9 per 2 inches
- Swatch Rows 15 per 2 inches
- Gauge (st/10 inch) 45
- Gauge (rows/ 10 inch) 75
- Head circumference (st) 94 stitches
- #stitches to cast on 47 stitches* (if you're going to make a tubular cast on starting with a provincial cast on)
- Size of Entrelac Square 7 (The size of your beginning squares can be changed in the spreadsheet, too.)
- number of squares 14
- stitches for entrelac 98
- Add 4 sts
- add one stitch every 23 sts
- Entrelac rows with full size squares 4 (According to the designer, using more Entrelac rows here will make the hat more slouchy.)
- Top Decreases
- Number of stitches: 56
- first decrease: 0 sts
- number of rows left: 14
- decreases per row: 4
- sts between decreases on first row: 12 (K12 , K2tog across)
Notes from my knitting:
- I knit 7 rounds of ribbing before adding the 8th where I increased 4 sts
- For me, the first entrelac round was clockwise. I would knit backwards until the 7th stitch, then K2tog(backwards). (there wouldn't be a complete K row first)
- When I am decreasing from 7st squares to 6 st, I pick up 6, and then when I get to the last 2 stitches, I K3tog-backwards (or Slip1, K2tog, PSSO if I'm going in the other direction). This way the squares aren't too long for the next round when I only will pick up 5 sts.
- I added a 3 st square row after the 4st row.
- I wanted to decrease the top faster: Pick up 1 stitch and knit, K1, K2tog --> across
- Next row: K1, K2tog -->, Followed by K2tog --> until 7 sts remained.
The hat is 101 g. So this took about half a skein. From the first skein, I have 67g remaining.
