Knitting a hat from the bottom up with a 16 inch circular needle works like a dream… until you get near the top.
As you decrease more and more stitches, you get to a point where your stitches no longer fill your circular needle, which makes knitting in the round awkward. Here are 4 ways to finish knitting the top of your hat:
Option 1: Use a Spare Needle with your Short Circular
When you have too few stitches to knit with your circular, you can transfer several stitches at a time to a spare needle & knit those with your right circular tip.
Watch the video tutorial below for step by step instructions, including showing you the final 4 rounds of my free beginner beanie hat pattern. Or read the written guide to the spare needle technique with photos here.
Option 2: Switch to a Long Circular (Magic Loop)
The magic loop technique is very popular for knitting small circumference items in the round. Learn all about it in 10 minutes in my magic loop knitting for beginners video tutorial.
Instead of using a circular needle that’s smaller than the circumference of what you’re knitting (16 inches for a hat here), you use a long 40+ inch circular needle instead. You divide your stitches in 2 halves, with big loops of cable hanging at each side like ears.
So when you reach the point in your hat decreased when you have too few stitches to fill your 16 inch circular, you could start knitting the next round with a long 40 inch circular instead and then knit the last few rounds using the magic loop method.
If you’re a magic loop fan, you could also knit the whole hat with magic loop of course. I prefer knitting hats on a short 16 inch circular without spending half my time yanking out cables, but each to their own. 😊
If you don’t already know how to magic loop, I recommend using another option:
- If you’re new to circular needles, but used to DPNs, use them (method 3 below)
- If you’re a knitting in the round beginner, try the spare needle method first (method 1 – video tutorial above).
- Or watch my magic loop knitting for beginners tutorial and dive right in!
Option 3: Switch to Double Pointed Needles
Many circular needle hat knitting pattern instructions just say to switch to double pointed needles (DPNs) when necessary. That means you start knitting with DPNs when you have too few stitches to comfortably knit with your circular needle.
If you already like knitting with DPNs, this is an easy way to finish your hat. But if you don’t know how to use DPNs or don’t want to buy sets of them just to finish off hats with, I suggest trying the spare needle method (option 1) or learning the magic loop technique (option 2) instead.
Option 4: Pull out Circular Cord
It’s a bit awkward, but you can knit right to the end of your hat with only your 16 inch circular needle.
But unless you’re used to doing it, this final option is only a last resort if you have no other needles for options 1-3.
Once you have too few stitches to knit easily with your circular, you need to yank out a bit of your circular cable so that your stitches fill the remaining cord.
At the start of the round, pull out a bit of cable between 2 stitches mid round, so that your stitches fill the remaining cord and you can start knitting the round.
When you reach the pulled out cable, or sooner if needed, pull out a bit of cord in a different spot between 2 stitches and continue knitting.
TIP: The fewer the stitches, the more times you will need to yank out a bit of cable to complete the round.
If you have a double pointed needle (or straight cable needle), I suggest trying the spare needle method (option 1 with video demo) instead.
Or if you already know magic loop (option 2), use that instead of this mini magic loop inspired hack.
But this method works if you don’t have any other needles or just can’t be bothered to switch (like me!).
I hope this guide helps you find your fave way to finish knitting hats in the round. There’s no right or wrong here – each to their own. The only rule in knitting is to have fun! 🙂 Got any questions, just comment below.