Hello, and welcome to the wonderful world of knit hats, perfect for the cooler weather that has definitely come our way! Today, I’m casting on a Gallinule Hat by Rachel Brockman in Fibra Natura Cobblestone and knitting it on Knit Picks 8-inch Double Pointed Needles.
A skein of Fibra Natura Cobblestone in Mallard, a set of Knit Picks Double Pointed Knitting Needles, and a set of UNIQUE Stitch Markers, ready to be cast on for the Gallinule Hat!
For many people, conventional wisdom holds that hats are a bit of a pain to knit on double-pointed needles because double-pointed needles, or DPNs, as they are sometimes abbreviated, don’t work well for larger stitch counts. If you squish a whole bunch of stitches onto a circular needle, you can probably make it work. If you try and squish a whole bunch of stitches onto double-pointed needles, they’ll just fall off the far end of the needle. Even the Gallinule Hat pattern itself suggests double-pointed needles only for the two smallest sizes. Casting on 112 stitches for the Adult Small size on double-pointed needles, as I’m doing here, is, honestly, not the most well-advised thing.
Casting on the Gallinule Hat with Fibra Natura Cobblestone in Mallard
So why would I cast the Gallinule Hat onto double-pointed needles rather than circular needles? The answer lies in a key part of the Double-Pointed Needles I chose – the 8-inch Double Pointed Knitting Needles. Double-pointed needles come in a variety of different lengths, but 8-inch needles are less common. A 6-inch length is usually the most common length, and I’ve seen needles that are even shorter. But the shorter the set of double-pointed needles, the fewer stitches you can put on them! With the longer needles, you can have more stitches on them before you get to the point of stitches falling off the other end; and the 8-inch Knit Picks Double Pointed Needles were more than long enough to hold all the stitches for the Gallinule Hat. As for the other half, why? Well, it’s because I personally prefer double-pointed needles over the Magic Loop technique. Let me explain: for a hat knit on circular needles, once you get to the crown decreases, you have to either: switch to using the Magic Loop technique or switch to a set of double-pointed needles anyway. You don’t have any of those worries for a hat knit on double-pointed needles, and I find it more convenient.
All right, but what about actually casting on Double-Pointed Needles?
Well, that part is almost the same as casting on using circular needles, with one important difference – you’ll be shuffling stitches around. Once you cast on a decent number of stitches on your first double-pointed needle (in this case, I cast on 56, or half the stitch count, onto one needle), you slip a bunch of stitches onto the next needle and keep casting on. I prefer to do this with only two double-pointed needles, and at the end of the cast on, you’ll end up with something that looks a little bit like a Magic Loop cast on. That said, if you find you need to use a third double-pointed needle to hold a larger number of stitches, that’s fine, too!
Casting on the Gallinule Hat with Fibra Natura Cobblestone in Mallard using two Knit Picks Double-Pointed Needles
Then, simply join in the round (exactly how you would for knitting on a circular needle), and you’re off and knitting!
But wait. The double-pointed needles come in packs of five, and all this means I’m only using four to knit my hat? You’re quite right. Stay tuned tomorrow as for why Knit Picks Double Pointed Needles come in packs of five and what that means for your knitting!
Knitting the Gallinule Hat designed by Rachel Brockman is perfect for this time of year.
