Hat knitting help!

[NotQuiteCockney]

I've been making hats lately, and having a bit of a struggle.

Essentially, if I want most of the hat to fit, say, a 20" head, I do a sample swatch of stocking stitch, do the math ... and end up with a hat (with ribbing, or cabling) that fits that measurement when it's not stretched at all. And when it's stretched a tiny bit, as hats normally are, it fits someone with a head twice as big.

So do I do my sample swatch in rib? Or something? And then stretch it for measurement? Is there some trick here I'm missing?

(Yes yes, I know, get a pattern blah blah blah. I do follow online patterns a bit, for ideas, but presumably I still need to be doing the math to make it fit a particular head, right?)

Bump?

Worry not, dearest, I gather that Tamum is back from her holidays

Woah. I didn't agree on a holiday for tamum. It's all very well taking time off from a job, but a responsibility as Knitting Fixer is 24/7!

This really is unacceptable.

Eh, seriously, where did she go?

Can't remember, but I am sure she will wander back here - I'll alert her to your needs!

NQC do CAT me with your postal address, and I'll send the lovely crochet pattern, darling

Tsk tsk, I can only apologise for my lack of responsible attitude NQC. Thanks to MI for dragging me kicking and screaming to MN, tee hee. And don't listen to that bundle, you don't want to be doing any of this crochet lark.

Right, I don't really do hats, but yes, you need to swatch in the stitch you are going to use, and for hats, you need to stretch the swatch by the amount you think it will finally be stretched and then do the calculations on that basis. Phew.

tamum, do you have knitted pants on over your clothes to do SuperKnit Emergency Responses?

tamum, thanks. It was weird not having you here - I started a thread with a mention of you in the title, and you didn't show up! (Lots of theoretical knitting questions, and other people stepped in, so it was fine.)

bundle, I have catted you. I'll give crochet a try, the crochet style of making a hat sounds a lot more sensible.