A Hat or Scarf Pattern in Your Own Gauge: Cast-On, Crown and Yarn Worked Out

The short answer: knit a swatch, enter your stitches and rows in the gauge calculator, and press Get a hat pattern in your gauge (or the scarf one). Knytstudio writes the whole pattern for your numbers: how many stitches to cast on, the brim, the body, the crown decreases and how much yarn you need.

Most hat and scarf patterns are written for one gauge. If your yarn, your needles or your hands give a different number of stitches in 10 cm, every count in the pattern is off: the cast-on, the rounds to the crown, the decreases. You can convert it by hand, but it is easier to start from your own swatch and get a pattern written for it.

How it works

1. Knit a swatch and measure it. Count the stitches and rows in 10 cm (4 in). If you have not done it before, here is how to knit and measure a gauge swatch.
2. Enter your gauge in the gauge calculator. It works in centimetres or inches.
3. Press Get a hat pattern in your gauge, or Get a scarf pattern in your gauge. Knytstudio opens with your gauge already filled in.
4. Pick the size and the details. The written pattern changes as you choose, and the 3D view shows the hat or scarf as it will look.

What you get for a hat

A hat knitted in the round from the brim up, with:

• The cast-on, rounded so your 1x1 or 2x2 rib comes out even.
• The brim: how many rounds of rib, single or folded.
• The body: how many rounds of plain knitting to the crown.
• The crown in eight sections, with where to place the markers and which rounds to decrease on, down to the last stitches.
• The finished size and how much yarn to buy, in metres, grams and 50 g balls, with the needles you need.

Sizes go from baby to adult large, and you can type in a head circumference and height of your own. Choose a beanie, which is a little smaller than the head so it hugs, or a slouchy hat, with less negative ease and 5 cm more height.

Here is the same adult medium beanie with a 1x1 rib at three gauges:

Weight	Gauge per 10 cm	Cast on	Brim	Body	Crown	Yarn needed
DK	22 sts, 30 rows	112	15 rounds	26 rounds	24 rounds	about 170 m
Worsted	18 sts, 24 rows	88	12 rounds	21 rounds	19 rounds	about 130 m
Bulky	14 sts, 20 rows	72	10 rounds	17 rounds	16 rounds	about 120 m

What you get for a scarf

Pick child, narrow, classic or wide, or type in your own width and length. Knit it flat, back and forth with a seed stitch or garter border so the edges lie flat, or as a tube in the round, closed at the ends.

The pattern gives the cast-on, the border, how many rows to the length you want and how much yarn. A classic scarf of 20 by 170 cm in DK at 22 stitches per 10 cm is 44 stitches and about 560 m of yarn.

Add a motif

The hat and the scarf are charts in Knytstudio, so you can draw on them. Place a ready-made band (stripes, checks, chevrons, waves, diamonds, hearts or a Selbu star) in two colours, or draw your own: a name, a pattern of your own. The 3D view and the chart update as you go, and the written pattern says which rounds each chart covers.

Get the pattern

Designing is free and needs no account. When the hat or scarf is ready, download the pattern as a PDF to print or keep on your phone: your first PDF is free with a free account.

The hat and scarf patterns are new. They follow the classic brim-up beanie and the plain flat scarf, but check the numbers against your swatch as you knit, and tell us if a knitter would do something differently.

Related

• How many stitches to cast on: the formula, with hat, scarf, blanket and sweater examples.
• How to knit and measure a gauge swatch.
• Gauge calculator.