circular needles and trims - question

[renee]

Hi
I'm just a beginning knitter and recently knitted a hat for my 1 year old son. As it ended up being a bit small, I added a trim. I did this by picking up the stitches around the hat onto circular needles - however, when it got to the ear flaps it really pulled on the stitches and created a small hole. I followed more or less a pattern and used the right needles and wool. Has anyone else had this problem? Maybe my circular needles were too long? I had bought the longest length of cord - and maybe that impacts on the length of the needle bit??! If anyone has any ideas on this, would love to hear from you.
Cheers
Renee

[ann]

I do not do much circular knitting, partly because I am slow, and partly because of that problem.  You would need to either buy a shorter length, or use a set of double pointed needles of the same size. I bought myself sets of different sizes when I had to keep decreasing on a jumper yoke rather than have to buy circular needles. They can be used for any circular knitting from socks to jumpers.

[yorkshirepudding]

Hi Renee,
Yes it sounds like you had the wrong needle length, circular needles can be between 40cm and 140cm long and the size you need needs to be smaller than the cirXference of the garment you are knitting so if you are knitting a jumper that is 100cm at the bust use 60cm-80cm needles and then the stitches won't pull. For a child's hat though double pointed needles would probably be best as Ann has suggested.  Hope this helps, happy knitting. Melanie.