Crown Decreases: How to Shape the Top of a Knitted Hat

Hat crown decreases turn a straight tube of knitting into a dome. You divide the stitches into equal sections, remove one stitch from each section on every decrease round, and keep going until only a handful of stitches remain to be gathered shut. Once the logic is clear, you can shape the top of any hat, check a pattern for errors, or fix a crown that came out too pointed.

How a Crown Is Built

Three decisions shape every crown:

• How many sections. Each section loses one stitch per decrease round. Six or eight sections are the most common for beanies.
• Which decrease. The stitch you use decides whether the lines lean right or left.
• How often. Plain rounds between decrease rounds make the crown taller and rounder. Decreasing every round makes it short and flat.

The stitch count has to divide evenly by the number of sections. That is why hat patterns favor counts such as 88 (8 sections of 11) or 48 (6 sections of 8). If you are still choosing a number, the guide to how many stitches to cast on for a hat shows how to land on a count that suits both the brim ribbing and the crown.

The Two Basic Decreases

Abbreviations here follow the Craft Yarn Council list of knitting abbreviations.

• k2tog (knit 2 together): insert the right needle into the next 2 stitches at once, as if to knit, and knit them as one. The result leans to the right.
• ssk (slip, slip, knit): slip 2 stitches one at a time as if to knit, then insert the left needle into the fronts of both and knit them together. The result leans to the left.

A crown worked entirely in k2tog shows lines that swirl gently toward the center. That is the standard beginner crown, and it looks deliberate. For straight lines, use the two decreases as a pair on either side of a marker, as described further down.

A Worked Example: 88 Stitches in 8 Sections

Take an adult hat in worsted weight (4) yarn at 18 stitches and 24 rounds = 4 in (10 cm). With 88 stitches it measures about 19.5 in (49.5 cm) around. Divide 88 by 8 and each section holds 11 stitches. On the first decrease round, the last 2 stitches of every section become 1, so you knit 9 and then k2tog.

Decrease round	Work this 8 times	Stitches left
1	K9, k2tog	80
2	K8, k2tog	72
3	K7, k2tog	64
4	K6, k2tog	56
5	K5, k2tog	48
6	K4, k2tog	40
7	K3, k2tog	32
8	K2, k2tog	24
9	K1, k2tog	16
10	K2tog	8

Notice the pattern: the number of knit stitches before each k2tog drops by one every time, and the total drops by 8. If your count after a round is not a multiple of 8, a decrease was missed or doubled in that round.

The classic knit beanie uses this 8-section crown. Thicker yarn usually gets fewer sections: the chunky knit hat divides 48 stitches into 6 sections of 8, because eight lines of bulky decreases would crowd the top.

Rounded or Pointed: How Often to Decrease

The table lists decrease rounds only. What you do between them sets the shape.

• A plain knit round after every decrease round gives a rounded dome. In the example, 10 decrease rounds plus 9 plain rounds make 19 rounds, a little over 3 in (about 8 cm) of crown at 6 rounds per inch.
• Decreasing every round uses 10 rounds, under 2 in (5 cm). The top closes quickly and sits flat, which can make the fabric gather where the crown starts.
• Two or more plain rounds between decreases stretch the crown into a cone.

Many hats mix the two: alternate decrease and plain rounds while there are plenty of stitches, then decrease every round for the last three or four. The final rounds have so few stitches that plain rounds between them would form a little point.

Whatever rate you choose, add the crown height to your plan. A hat that should be 8.5 in (21.5 cm) tall with a 3 in (7.5 cm) crown needs its decreases to start at 5.5 in (14 cm).

Straight Lines with Paired Decreases

For four crisp ridges instead of a swirl, split the stitches into 4 sections and decrease at both ends of each one. With 88 stitches, each section has 22:

Decrease round: (K1, ssk, knit to 3 stitches before the marker, k2tog, k1) 4 times — 8 stitches decreased.

On the first round that means k1, ssk, k16, k2tog, k1 in each section, leaving 80 stitches. The count per round drops by 8, exactly as in the table, so the crown height stays the same.

When the Stitch Count Does Not Divide

Say a hat has 90 stitches. Eight sections will not work, but there are easy ways out:

• Use a number of sections that does divide: 6 sections of 15, 9 sections of 10, or 10 sections of 9.
• Knit one setup round that removes the extras. Two k2tog spaced half a round apart bring 90 down to 88, and the 8-section table applies.

If This Happens, Do That

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Pointed tip	Plain rounds continued to the very end	Decrease every round once about a third of the stitches remain
Puckers where the crown begins	Decreasing too fast at the start	Add a plain round after each of the first few decrease rounds
Hat too tall	Crown started at full hat height	Rip back and start the crown about 3 in (7.5 cm) sooner
Stitches stretched tight on the needle	Too few stitches for a 16-inch circular	Switch to double-pointed needles or magic loop

That last row of the table catches almost everyone on a first hat. The options are compared in the guide to needles for knitting hats. When 8 or so stitches remain, the knitting is done: cut the yarn and close the top and finish the hat.