I'm going to try and use my blog here today for purely selfish reasons – to see if anyone can please help me with my current knitting project!
Now, once a week I normally go to a lovely knitting group, with a talented bunch of women who I'm sure could help me. The only thing is that I couldn't make it last week as I was too busy trying to get a broken washing machine fixed (which still isn't fixed incidently – in a week in which both kids came home from school / nursery covered in mud of course!) and as it's half term this week I can't really try and juggle both kids whilst trying to figure this out either. So, instead I thought I'd try my lovely blog readers to see if any of you can please help me out on this. The thing is that I'm trying to make a hat for Master C and he could really do with something to keep his ears warm right now!
So, the pattern I'm following is this one for a Double Rib Toddler Hat on Ravelry (you might need to be logged in to see this). I'm trying to do the mock cable pattern, mainly because I fell in love with it whilst looking at photos of the hats other people had made from the same pattern.
The mock cale part of the pattern is relatively simple and I had no problems following it for the main body of the hat.
1: *k2, p2*, repeat **
2: *k1, yarn over, k1, p2*, repeat **
3. *k3, p2*, repeat **
4. Slip 1 stitch, k2, pass slipped stitch over the two knitted stitches, p2*, repeat **
All easy so far then I got to the decrease part and that's where I'm struggling!
If you were doing the hat without the mock cable then the decrease is relatively simple to follow.
First decrease round: k2, *skp, k14* repeat ** 5 times, skp, k12
(skp: slip one stitch, knit one stitch, pass the slipped stitch over the knitted one)
You then continue decreasing every other round for a while and then towards the end on every round. The pattern goes on to explain that on each subsequent decrease there will always be one less stitch between the skps which makes sense.
However, for the mock cable varient the pattern tells you that the decreases are done as in the main pattern , but with a p2tog instead of skp. It then "helpfully" adds that you should not do the yarn over if you will not have enough stitches to do the slipped stitch pass over.
So, on the first round I think I did the right thing by knitting as follows:
k2, * p2tog, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2 *, repeat ** 5 times, p2tog, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p2
Then, assuming that I am supposed to decrease only on every other row, whilst also trying to maintain the mock cable I did the next row as follows:
# k1, yarn over (yo), k1, p1, * k1, yo, k1, p2 *, repeat ** 3 times #, repeat ## , k1, yo, k1, p1, k1, yo, k1, p2, k1, yo, k1, p2, k1, yo, k1, p2
But then what???
I think that on the next row I should be doing something along the lines of k3, p1, k3, p2, etc. but I have no idea where I should also be decreasing on this round so as to make the pattern look nice when the hat's on.
Should I be moving round the point where I do the decrease with each round? And what about near the end where I'm supposed to be decreasing on every round?
I'm completely confused and looking online the only other help I've found is someone who's come up with an alternative which doesn't look as nice when knitted up. Comments on Ravelry from others include things like "I can’t for the life of me understand how to make the cables continue all the way up" and that's how I feel. Some people have written blog posts about the pattern, but in what I think is Dutch and google translate isn't all that great when it comes to knitting terminology!
So, if you're a knitter and can help at all I'd be very very grateful. And if you're one of my knitting group reading and fancy coming and helping in person I'll happily provide tea and cake if you do!
Thanks everyone!
This original pattern is available for free on Ravelry and is Copyright 2013 Torunn V. Espe. I've shared bits of the pattern here to try to understand it better and I plan to share that understanding with others via Ravelry if we figure it out. Please note that I'm certainly not trying to break any copyright by writing this post – just sharing some knitting knowledge and love!
Hmm! Well I’ve had a look at the Ravelry pattern and your notes and this is what I think has been done in the hats in the pictures on Rav.
Just before each decrease p2tog on your first decrease round you have a cable made up of 2/3 stitches depending on your round. Those cables (there are six) are sacrosanct. Maybe put a marker or a safety pin on each one.
These are the cables that are going to run all the way to the crown, the rest will gradually become absorbed into the side of the cable.
Because you are about to decrease a stitch that formed part of the closing decrease to the cable, and won’t therefore have enough stitched to do the closure, you shouldn’t have done a yo in the cables immediately after the decrease on the last row – you can just drop them as you go round the next row.
So your next round is Round A: **k3, p2tog, k1 (remember to drop that yo if it’s still there), p2, *k3, p2, repeat from * to the next special cable and then from ** to the end of the round.
Round B: **sl 1, k2, psso, p1, k1, p2, *sl1, k2, psso, p2 repeat from * to the next special cable and then from ** to the end of the round.
Then Round C(next decrease round): **k2, p2tog, p2, *k2, p2 repeat from * to the next special cable and then from ** to the end of the round.
D: **k1 yo k1, p3, *k1, yo, k1, p2 repeat from * to the next special cable and then from ** to the end of the round.
E: **k3, p2tog, p1, *k3, p2 etc
You should find that as you work your way up, more and more stitches are absorbed into that p2tog cable. Just remember that if your round starts k2, p2tog k2, don’t do the yarn over on the next round.
If it helps you could visualise it as all the cables going straight up and then the special cable slicing across the diagonal bottom right to top left, absorbing stitches as it goes.
I’m not sure how many stitches you need to get down to before you thread through and bind off but if you get stuck on the decreases give me a shout.
Good Luck!
Yikes – that was a ramble – I didn’t realise how much I’d waffled for! Hope it helps – I’m Cariemay on Ravelry if you want to give me a shout there!
Thank you so much for this. Not going to try to tackle it now though, but when I feel fresh after a nights sleep. Thanks again!
I am new to Ravelry, but finding this kind of support and sharing is amazing – and encouraging. I loved the mock cable stitch, esp for a winter’s hat, but could not figure out the decrease rounds. The hat ended in a mash of stitches, but since my grandson for whom I made this hat is growing faster than I can knit, the hat will not last past this winter. But I will try again since I loved the pattern so much. Thank you!
I have a whole blog post planned about how a friend helped me to finish the hat and come up with a chart version of the design – I just need the time to write the blog post!