Creating a Wedged Brim with Short Rows

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Wedge shaped brims are becoming an increasingly common feature in Woolly Wormhead designs and they’ve proven to be rather popular.

A brim that’s deeper at the front than it is at the back allows the Hat to sit back off the face a little, and should there be any slouch, it drapes more naturally and bunches less at the back.

Having the brim a little shallower at the back makes the Hat more comfortable to wear, and it avoids the brim getting turned up or even pushed up. A wedged brim like this is especially effective on a deeper brim and is really rather flattering.

In this tutorial I’ll be focusing on creating a wedged brim in vertically knit Hats, primarily bottom-up Hats. The same principles can apply to top-down Hats, only you’ll work it all in reverse as the brim will be knit last.

Because vertically knit Hats are generally worked in the round, we’ll use short rows to create the wedge shaping. You can create a wedged brim in a sideways knit Hat, too, and that’s something I’m planning to write a tutorial for in the future, but it’s not something that’ll be covered today.

In terms of brim stitch patterns, you can work the short rows into just about any stitch pattern. And the stitch used for the brim in the Hat pattern might determine the type of short rows you work. For instance if it’s a garter stitch brim, I’d suggest German Short Rows. If it’s a stocking stitch or ribbed brim, I’d suggest the Wrap and Turn method.

What you may also find is that you need to use a combination of short row methods to get the neatest results. This is because the short rows will be worked back and forth when we knit a Hat in the round, and that means you’ll need to create short rows on the purl side as well as the knit side, or on the wrong side as well as the right side. It’s worth experimenting a little, treating a brim as a swatch, to see which methods, or combination of methods, gives the best results. If you’re working a ribbed brim the short rows tend to look neatest if they’re worked on what would be the purl stitches on the right side of the work - in other words, work the short row stitch before or after a stitch that’ll be a knit stitch on the right side of the work.

the ‘Elevation’ Hat has a deep wedged brim in twisted rib

the ‘Elevation’ Hat has a deep wedged brim in twisted rib

When it comes to Hat maths, there are generally two multiples we work with - 6 and 8. This is always the case, I myself like to mix things up and use different multiples, but these two are the most common. Yes, there’s a bit of maths involved in this - there has to be else the short rows won’t be even and the wedge won’t work! But it’s not too challenging and I’ll provide a couple of ways to approach it. As always, if you need any help, please pop your question in the comments below.

In my experience, the short rows usually play nicer with the maths when the number of stitches cast on is a multiple of 8. Furthermore, the gradient of the wedge is a little deeper and more gradual than a wedge worked on a multiple of 6. Not to mention that vertically knit Hats tend to work on multiples of 8 more often, especially given some of the common crown shaping formulas.

So without further ado, let’s look at how we’d work in those short rows!

Short Row Formula for a Multiple of 8 Stitches

First things first, it’s really import that the start of the round be at a short row mid-way point. If we want to the short rows to be balanced, so they sit nice and evenly at the front and the wedge frames the face the same way both sides, the first or last short rows can’t be one eighth from the start of the round - they need to be one sixteenth.

The sketches below are not the best hand drawings ever of the short row journey but I hope they help you visualise the best placement for the short rows, and why offsetting by one sixteenth is the neatest option!

Diagram 1: this hand-drawn schematic highlights the journey that the short rows would take in a brim worked on a multiple of 8 without any offset. There are 8 points evenly marked around the Hat, and the centre front and back are noted

Diagram 2: this hand-drawn schematic highlights the journey that the short rows would take in a brim worked on a multiple of 8 that’s offset by one sixteenth. The 8 points are evenly marked around the Hat, and the centre front and back are noted.

The points labelled ‘B’ would be the centre back, where the stitch marker is, and the points marked ‘F’ are the centre front. I hope you can see how offsetting by one sixteenth at the start of the row balances up the short rows more.

If one eighth of the stitch count is an odd number, work the first one sixteenth as one stitch less than the last sixteenth, or vice versa. This only needs to be considered once, at the very start of the short row round where we deal with the one sixteenth - throughout the rest of the row we’ll be dealing with one eighth of the stitch count, and it doesn’t matter whether that’s an odd or even number.

The formula for short rows is as follows, where:

X is the total number of stitches in the brim
SR means work a short row in your preferred method. In the Wrap and Turn method this is the stitch that’s wrapped; in the German Short Row method this is the double-legged stitch. Whether you work the short row before after you turn is up to you, as long as you do turn at the short row point.

Short Row Rnd: Work 15/16X, SR, turn, work 7/8X, SR, turn, work 3/4X, SR, turn, work 5/8X, SR, turn, work 1/2X, SR, turn, work 3/8X, SR, turn, work 1/4X, SR, turn, work 1/8X, SR, turn; work to marker, working the short rows as you go.
Following Rnd: Work all stitches, working across the remaining short rows as you go.

Let’s try another way of setting this up. Divide the number of stitches you have by 8, which will give you Y number of stitches, as you’ll be placing 8 stitch markers around, excluding the start of round marker. However you’re not placing the 8 markers evenly around from the start point, you’ll place the first marker at Y/2 after the start of round marker. Once the first short row marker is placed, place another stitch marker after Y number of stitches, and then again after the next Y stitches and so on. The last short marker will be Y/2 before the start of round marker. Then you could work as follows:

Short Row Rnd: Work to marker 8, SR, turn, work to marker 1, SR, turn, work to marker 7, SR, turn, work to marker 2, SR, turn, work to marker 6, SR, turn, work to marker 3, SR, turn, work to marker 5, SR, turn, work to marker 4, SR, turn; work to marker, working the short rows as you go.
Following Rnd: Work all stitches, working across the remaining short rows as you go.

Don’t forget, work the following round as a plain round, working across the remaining short rows. Stacking up short rows on top of short rows can get messy quickly and I’ve found that a plain round between really helps to neaten things up. However, if you’re aiming for a really steep brim the plain rounds might work against you by adding extra depth to the back of the brim, and in this case you’ll want to be extra mindful of which short row methods you’re working to help you get the neatest results.

And how many short row rounds to work? Well, it depends on how steep you’d like the front of the brim and how much difference you’d like in the depth of the brim between the centre front and back. Your row gauge will obviously play a big part in this, finer yarns will need more short row rounds to make a difference. Again, try it and see what works best for you!

Short Row Formula for a Multiple of 6 Stitches

This formula is similar to the one above except that we’ll only have 6 short row points around, and the short rows would be offset by one twelfth. Because there’s less rows worked within the short row round it won’t create such a deep wedge, but it can be worked as many times as you like to get the effect you’re after.

The formula for short rows is as follows, where:

X is the total number of stitches in the brim
SR means work a short row in your preferred method. In the Wrap and Turn method this is the stitch that’s wrapped; in the German Short Row method this is the double-legged stitch. Whether you work the short row before after you turn is up to you, as long as you do turn at the short row point.

Short Row Rnd: Work 11/12X, SR, turn, work 5/6X, SR, turn, work 2/3X, SR, turn, work 1/2X, SR, turn, work 1/3X, SR, turn, work 1/6X, SR, turn; work to marker, working the short rows as you go.
Following Rnd: Work all stitches, working across the remaining short rows as you go.

Same as before, here’s another way of setting this up without needing to count every time. Divide the number of stitches you have by 6, which will give you Y number of stitches; you’ll be placing 6 stitch markers around, excluding the start of round marker. However, again, remember that you’re not placing the 6 markers evenly around from the start point, you’ll place the first marker at Y/2 after the start of round marker. Once the first short row marker is placed, place another stitch marker after Y number of stitches, and continue this all the way around. The last short marker will be Y/2 before the start of round marker. Then you could work as follows:

Short Row Rnd: Work to marker 6, SR, turn, work to marker 1, SR, turn, work to marker 5, SR, turn, work to marker 2, SR, turn, work to marker 4, SR, turn, work to marker 3, SR, turn; work to marker, working the short rows as you go.
Following Rnd: Work all stitches, working across the remaining short rows as you go.

OK! I think I’ve thrown enough numbers and maths at you for today? I do hope you find this explanation helpful.

You can of course create a wedged brim like this in any vertically knit Hat, it doesn’t have to work on a multiple of 8 or 6 to get the same effect. I’ve given these as examples because they’re the most common multiples, but with a little maths you can apply the same principles to any even multiple. Just remember that the higher the multiple, the steeper the brim will be.

Support

Have fun with this method! If you’ve a question about this technique, pop it in a comment below or visit the forum. I’m unable to offer help with patterns or techniques via email. I’d love to see what you do with this!

This tutorial was updated on 2nd December 2021 with fresh photos and new links, and was republished from my drafts where it’s been hiding for a while.