Woven Rain Hat, Interweave Knits Fall 2012, page 93

St. Blaise wrote

on Sep 16, 2012 11:46 AM

I've ordered the yarn to make a couple of these hats; and while waiting for it to arrive I thought I'd practice with some leftover yarn.  So naturally I'm stumped from the start and I'm hoping someone here might help me.  I will quote the instruction:

"1-cord CO;  CO 3 sts.  Row 1   K1f&b, k2, do not turn; sl 3 sts to left needle -- 1st inc'd.  Rep Row 1, adding 1 st to right needle every row, until there are 4 fewer sts on right needle than total required number of CO sts.  Next row K1f&b, k2 -- 1 st inc'd"

Well, the required number of cast on stitches was 3.  So am I to understand that the instructions are to repeat row 1 until there of 4 fewer stitches on the right needle than 3???  I've never been much good at math; but I've never seen a pattern go in to negative numbers.

Where have I gone wrong?  Thank you in advance.........

salmonmac wrote

on Oct 2, 2012 6:17 AM

These are the directions for the I-cord cast on. The 3 sts you begin with are what you need to begin the I-cord. The CO sts they refer to later: "...4 fewer sts on right needle than total required number of CO sts." are the CO sts for the hat. You must have directions following these for the actual hat and these will give the number of sts needed to begin the hat itself. I agree that the directions as written seem like a feat of magic!