Knitted Baby Cap Tutorial

As promised, although maybe a little late, here is the tutorial for the baby cap using Double Pointed Needles (DPN). I think that DPNs come in a pack of 5. You will use 4 to make this cap.

I used Dreambaby DK yarn which is a very soft and thin yarn and it was what Christina recommended. It is a 50% acrylic, 50% nylon blend. Using this yarn, I used size 4 DPNs.

Using 2 DPNs, cast on 80. I used the long tail cast on method. It’s easy with needles this small to cast on way too tight and using 2 of the needles helps prevent that.



Here is what 80 stitches looks like.



Carefully remove one of the needles. At this point, you will separate these 80 stitches onto 3 DPNs.



For the first cap I made, I had 30, 30 and 20 stitches on each needle to do a K1, P1 design. For this cap, I did 32, 28 and 20 to do a K2, P2 design. I like the K2, P2 design much better!

Once you have the stitches separated on the 3 needles, you will need to connect the loop. I didn’t see exactly how Christina did this at the shop, but to the best of my knowledge and research I did on the net, you just switch the first stitch from the first needle and the last stitch from the last needle. I looped one inside the other, almost like you are binding off, but you save both stitches. Once you start knitting rows, it will all hold together well.



Now you are ready to start stitching your design.

Here are the hints and things to remember:

• In the above picture, the triangle of the DPNs is laying with the stitches facing towards the center. You need to do this to start to make sure that your stitches don’t get turned around the needle or from needle to needle. If this happens and you knit it inadvertently, there is not much that you can do but rip it all out.
• You always knit the same way that you knit anything on 1 needle – from right to left. This means that the needle that is on the right side of the picture is the needle that you just finished with. Your yarn will be hanging from this needle. When you knit again, you will be knitting from the bottom left needle onto the 4th free needle.
• The tail from your cast on stitches will indicate the end of a round. Once you start a row and knit from all three needles, you will finish the row.
• When you start a new needle, make sure that first stitch is as tight as you can. If the last and first stitches from one needle to the next are too loose, you will end up with what is considered ‘railroads’ in the design – stitches that are distorted in the design and look like railroad tracks.
• The needles that I have been using are longer needles and have been very helpful with learning the technique. It was a little difficult the first few rows where the yarn is stuck very close to the needles. As you work a few rows and the yarn and design start to appear, it becomes much easier to work.
• Once you finish the stitches on a needle, move the new stitches to the middle of the new needle. This will help ensure that you won’t drop stitches when you start stitching from the next needle.
• When I am stitching, I am only holding onto the needle that I am stitching from and the needle that I am stitching to. I sort of just let the other 2 dangle. This is why making sure the stitches are on the middle of the other 2 needles is helpful.
• You may need to move stitches from 1 needle to another at some point during the process. I just moved mine as I did when I was separating the stitches with just a simple slipping of the stitches from one to another.

OK, so back to the 80 stitches that are divided onto 3 needles with the loop completed…

K1, P1 or K2, P2 until you have about an inch knitted.

Knit all the way around until you have about an inch to an inch and a half of just knit rows.

Knit 6, knit 2 together all the way around.

Knit 1 row.

Knit 5, knit 2 together all the way around.

Knit 1 row.

Knit 4, knit 2 together all the way around.

Knit 1 row.

Knit 3, knit 2 together all the way around.

Knit 1 row.

Knit 2, knit 2 together all the way around.

Knit 1 row.

Knit 1, knit 2 together all the way around.

Knit 1 row.

Knit 2 together until you about 4 or 3 stitches remaining on needles. Cut the yarn and pull it through all of these stitches. Work the yarn through these stitches to make a flat top.



Sew the ends into the cap.

Thanks to Christina from Lambikins for the pattern and the helpful hints!!