One of the items I love knitting most are hats, and the folded brim is a technique I use often. When you begin with a provisional cast-on – I prefer and exclusively use the crochet provisional cast on, detailed here – and join the cast on and live stitches, the end result is a seamless folded brim that is warm and strong and requires no additional finishing save for weaving in ends.
MATERIALS:
In addition to your in-progress knitting, you will also need:
• A single double pointed needle or circular needle of the same size or one smaller than the needle you are working with.
STEP 1 / Unclip your stitch marker and transfer the provisionally cast on stitches to your spare circular needle or dpn. If using a dpn, you will only transfer a few stitches at a time, as I have done above.
STEP 2 / Fold the work half so that the wrong sides of the brim are facing. Position the spare needle and working needle together on the left hand side.
STEP 3a / Holding the left hand (front needle) and spare (back needle) together, using the same technique as you would in a three-needle bind off, and working the stitches as they appear on the RS of your knitting, work the first stitch on the front needle and first stitch on back needle together as one. In the brim above, my ribbing began with a k2, so I am working the first stitches as a knit.
STEP 3b / First stitch completed.
STEP 4 / Repeat Step 3 for the second stitch.
Continue in this manner, working around the full circumference of the hat. If your folded brim is ribbed, you will notice the stitches are off by one half of a stitch on the inside of the brim. This is normal, and due to the nature of joining two pieces of opposing fabric. As long as you make sure to always work 1 stitch on the front with one stitch on the back, you will end up with no extra stitches at the end.
If you are using a double pointed needle for your spare (back needle), as you work around, you will need to unzip the provisional cast on stitches in order to place more live stitches on the needle.
Once complete, all of the provisional stitches will have been worked with the live stitches on your needle. The original end from picking up the provisionally cast on stitches will be situated at the round where the stitches have been joined, and your needles and working yarn is in position to work another round.
Thanks for the tips, I’m up to this stage now, & in my mind what you showed in your pictures was actually what I thought I would do!! It was nice to have it clarified!!!
That’s great! So glad it gave you peace of mind. – KGO
I am not an expert in knitting/crocheting (just a few months into it now) but I completely understood your instructions and I think this is absolutely brilliant! Thank you for sharing this. I will definitely apply it in my hat projects now. A big hug from Ireland!
I saw how to knit two together from two needles to make a double cuff. Didn’t see how to purl two together from two needles. Wondering if I can transfer the purl stitch from the back needle onto the front needle, and then purl the two together.
You purl just as you would work the knit, except instead of knitting, you’re purling the stitches together.
I like this method of creating a folded brim. My problem is when I want to use a round of picot stitches for the fold, it is hard for me to count the rounds from the cast on to the picot round, and then to the current round. Any tips?
Hmmm… I think it would be similar to counting rounds on stockinette? Each round is one “V” of stitches. The final round before the picot is the round when the stitches are decreased (because the picot round decreases the stitches from the round below it), and the first round after the picot would be the first round after the yarn overs. I hope this helps! – Kate
I am confused about how you attach the cast on stitches to the bottom of the brim. When you are transferring the CO’s do you go into the stitches of the brim?
Hi Jessica! I’m sorry you are confused. Can you clarify your question for me? When you mean “transferring the COs”, do you mean to the needles? Then yes, you do go into the first round of stitches. I hope this helps! – Kate
Thank you for the very detailed explanation. I did try it once but frogged it all due to the half missing stitch… I’m still confused about it, is there a way around it? Thank you