Now that you've knit your hat to the length you'd like, it's time to start our decreases! Before you get started on your decreases, however, be sure to measure your hat to make sure it's the right length.
Because the bottom edge of the hat rolls up for the first few rows, to measure your hat you'll need to hold it down as flat as you can while measuring. It will feel a bit awkward, and the hat might bulk up underneath where you're measuring, but you'll want to be sure your hat is long enough. The decreases only hapen over one or two rows, so if the hat isn't long enough it'll fit more like a beanie, with a bumpy top.
The Simple Slouch Hat uses a K2TOG decrease, which means "knit two together". To do this, you simply insert your right needle into the next two stitches on the left needle, rather than just one stitch.
Then simply knit the two stitches as though they were one stitch - wrap the working yarn around the right-hand needle,
Lift the left needle up and over the right needle, carrying both stitches with you as you go,
And finally, you drop both stitches off your left-hand needle, leaving just one stitch on the right needle instead of two.
After you've worked an entire row in this manner, you'll have half the stitches on your needles, as seen above.
You will continue decreasing along the second row, until you can no longer comfortably decrease stitches. For my hat, this meant only decreasing for about half of the row, rather than decreasing for a full second row. If you're comfortable squeaking out more stitches, then do so!
Above is a video showing the K2TOG stitch from Knit Picks.
Wednesday we'll talk binding off the top of the hat, and weaving in your ends! Be sure to ask any
questions you may have in the comments, and don't forget to hashtag your
projects #simpleslouchKAL on Instagram!
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