When you first start working with a circular knitting machine, chances are your first project will be a Beanie. Circular knitting machines are considered a toy for kids to have their first experience with knitting , and the easiest project is a beanie. But what are the sizes you can make on each knitting machine, and how much yarn are you going to use for each size.
Depending on the how and what you want to make with your circular knitting machine, you should buy one size or another. In this other blog post I make a review of each knitting machine and what types of projects they are good for!
If you want to make kids and babies beanies it’s important to know that a 40 needles machine will do a better job because the diameter of the tube is smaller than the bigger machines. If you are mainly making adults beanies, your best option is to buy the biggest machine you can get. I’ve made beanies and blalaclavas, and I have a balaclava video here, for man and some were a bit too small, still most man will fit and definitely most woman won’t have a problem with the size of beanies made with a Sentro 48 needles machine, or any other machine with the same size. If you want to make smaller items such as socks, leg warmers, stuffed animals, etc. get the 22 or 32 needle machine.
You can learn all about knitting machines and which one you should get in my full guide.
To make a Beanie there’s no mystery, it’s just cast on the stitches and keep cranking the machine until you have the right number of rows for the desired size . After that, remove all the stitches with the tail you have left and the tapestry needle that comes with most machines, remove the needle and pull the yarn until the bottom and the top are closed. Put one side inside the other and make a knot with both tail ends.
Beanie size chart for a circular knitting machine
Gauge: 4′ or 10 cm = 23 rows x 14 sts
Yarn weight: 3 – Light / DK – 100 gr – 250 m
All sizes include a 3 cm brim, if you don’t want a brim just make 20 rows less
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| Beanie Size | Machine size | Number of rows | Size in In and Cm (with rolled brim) | Length of the tube | Panel width | Yarn skiens |
| Babies | Sentro 40 | 68 | 4.5′ | 11-12 cm | 12′ – 30 cm | 5.5′ – 14 cm | 40 gr |
| 1 – 3 Yo | Sentro 40 | 76 | 5.5′ | 13 cm | 14′ – 36 cm | 5.5′ – 14 cm | 50 gr |
| 4 – 8 Yo | Sentro 48 or Addi 46 | 90 | 6 – 6.5′ | 16 -17 cm | 16′ – 41 cm | 6.5′ – 16 cm | 70 gr |
| 10 – 13 Yo | Sentro 48 or Addi 46 | 110 | 8′ | 24 cm | 18′ – 46 cm | 6.5′ – 16 cm | 80 gr |
| Adult woman | Sentro 48 | 120 | 8.5′ | 21 cm | 22′ – 58 cm | 6.5′ – 16 cm | 90 gr |
| Adult man | Sentro 48 | 140 | 9.5′ | 24 cm | 26′ – 66 cm | 6.5′ – 16 cm | 100 gr |
Don’t forget to pin it so you can come back to it!
Types of yarns to choose to make a beanie on a circular knitting machine:
There’s a lot of different types of yarn available that work really well with this machines. I made a video explaining and showing some of the yarn that I tried, and what works and doesn’t.
I also got to the conclusion that there’s a calculation you can make if you are in another country and the yarn that I’m talking about doesn’t exist in your country, it’s very simple for each roll of 100 gr you need to have 170 m or more, if the yarn has less then 150m for 100 gr your machine stitches will be too tight and the machine will stop working.
On the other hand if in 100 gr you have more than 300 m your beanie will be see through, because the yarn will be too thin. For this types of fine yarns once you have more experience you can use them doubled.
But for your first project the basic Acrylic 8 PLY or DK will work perfect, you should work with an acceptable yarn on this machines when you start and then slowly try new one as you get more experience and learn to fix dropped stitches. The closer the thickness to the sample yarn that comes with the Sentro knitting machine, the better.
One more thing you can try once you made a few beanies is change the material of your yarn, I’ve made some tops with cotton yarn which you have to be careful because normally cotton yarn doesn’t stretch. Wool works really well too and it feels more soft, but because it’s more expensive it’s better to use when you’re 100% confident on what you’re doing.
Here is a video only about summer yarns that I tried and that work fine on any circular knitting machine. I used them to make summer clothes though I wouldn’t use any of them to make beanies!
In this other article I have a list of yarn that I liked with links of where you can purchase them, check it here!
And if you already have some experience with this machine you can try some of my patterns here, I’ve made sweaters, pants, shorts, etc…
I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial about beanies and leave me a comment if this was helpful!
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Happy Knitting!
Fabi Correa