Guage is the thing...

Many may remember my frustrations with making this beanie. The pattern said it would fit a extra large head with dreadlocks. Not! It wouldn't even fit my head. What a waste of time. Meanwhile I did learn how to do cables with this hat. So all was not lost. I am going to try and do another hat like this in the future using Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn. Perhaps increasing the weight of the yarn may make the true gauge of this hat. Ah, there's the key right? I didn't know a thing about gauge when I started this project. However, I do now. I pay attention to gauge every time I start a project. That way I know how many stitches per inch I am making. Say a hat's circumference is 21 inches. If I am using a yarn and needle combination that makes 3 stitches per inch, I would need to cast on 63 stitches give or take to reach the correct gauge of the hat. Say the hat calls for you to cast on 60 stitches and it has a pattern that requires 5 stitches (the stitch requirement might look like this 60+5). Go ahead and cast on an extra 2 stitches so that you have a total of 65. It's always better to be a little bit over than to go through all the work to make a hat only to have it come out too small. I bet some may have not known there was math involved in knitting. Ha! I hate math....