If I continue with this knitting having made this mistake...

[margaritasbythesea]

what will happen?

Beginner knitter here.

I had a ball of wool left over after making some gloves so in th interest of thrift, I decided to make a hat. The hat pattern I have called for a guage of 22 stitches per 10cm. The guage on my gloves was that, albeit using different yarn and kneedles (a 7 needle).

I started the hat but followed the pattern by mistake rather than my intention and used size 4 needles. The guage is now 26 stitches per 10 cm. I don't really mind unravelling and starting again but am curious as to what would happen if I carried on as I am trying to figure out how all this works.

The top of the hat is shaped using a simple decrease. The rib trim is in yet another size needle - 3.25. So the pattern calls for me to go from 3.25 to 4, I planned to go frm 3.25 to 7 (and I didn't know if that would work but the guage looked correct) but actually went to a 4 (and now the guage is not correct).

And should I just give up trying to use up the excess wool (it's expensive!) and follow a damn pattern.

It'll mean your hat will come out smaller than it would be if you had 22sts per 10 cm.

How many stitches do you have in the whole thing? You can calculate how much smaller it'll be to give you an idea if it's worth ripping out and redoing it.

Can you post the pattern's picture of the hat?

I'm very impressed that a beginner knitter tackled gloves!

They are fingerless gloves. Don't be impressed! They're essentially a tube.

It will come out significantly smaller, which may make it unwearable with that design. I think best to undo back to the rib.

Ok. thanks. I will do that. It looks so nice though! I am admiring my handiwork.

But of course, a hat with no head in it is not much of a hat at all!

Im not a knitter but if it doesnt work out could you see if it is similar to any of the patterns being used for the animals in australia maybe?

Yes I thought I might have a look at what was wanted so I could practice on odd bits of yarn.

@margaritasbythesea out of curiosity, what is the pattern/book you are using called?

I'm also a beginner knitters, and tackled fingerless tube gloves, a hat, and a scarf just before christmas.

Knitting really is great so keep up the good work

It's called How to Knit by Tina Barrett. I find it easier to follow than another one I have. The only problem I have with it is that it gives recommended yarns for each pattern and most of these are discontinued. I google them, though and that seems to come up with a suggested alternative for each one.

Here is the index, which might help you decide if it us for you.

OP are you on Ravelry? I haven't been for a long time but they used to have a feature where you could find similar yarns. The main thing I look out for is that it has a similar length per weight. So e.g. a 50g ball of yarn that is 105 yards long can be substutited with any other 50g ball of yarn that is ~105 yards long.

You can also find many many patterns (quite likely also the ones from your book) and see which yarns other knitters used for this specific project, and also how it turned out. Some will leave comments as to how suitable the yarn was etc. The advantage is that these are usually yarns that are quite widely available.

Having your yarn already (the left-overs) you should be able to find an 'easy' pattern that calls for that weight of yarn. I was like you at first, I would just take the pattern I had and take the yarn I had and try to work out how I had to change the pattern to fit my yarn (different needles, different numbers of stitches, what-have-you) but that was before I discovered Ravelry. It is much much easier if you invest that time that you would be spending on adapting the pattern, into looking for a different pattern that actually matches the yarn you've got!

I did have a look but found it a bit daunting, but on second thoughts it mught jyst be that the search functions didn't work well on my phone. I found that on the Wool and the Gang website when I was browsing yesterday (how expensive are they, btw!). I shall try again on my desktop

@margaritasbythesea I'll have a look on amazon for it, thanks! I also second ravelry even just to look through, I've lost so many hours on that site in the last month alone!