An Update on the Hat

I thought I ought to update you on one of the recent Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeeeeeks because nobody likes a floppy brim. So, if you remember rightly I was making pattern 4336 out of the King Cole Raffia and I'd steamed it and starched it and it looked great! Until the next day when it went flooooooppy. So, after speaking to Zoe Halstead about it, I decided to PVA it. But then I lost the hat and forgot to buy the PVA and long story short, I didn't get to do it until yesterday. I was planning to do it at home in a much more relaxed manner but once I had all the stuff together I thought I ought to make hay whilst the sun shines and get it did.

Now, the pattern I think says to do it on the underside of your hat, which means that there is a little operational tricksy problematics. You need some sort of bowl or something that's big enough for the whole of the bowl of the hat to fit in and not too much of the brim to fall in. The closest thing I had was a vintage Roses tin given to me by a customer full of buttons that have since been sorted and what have you.

It's lovely isn't it?!

After you've plonked the hat inside you need to build some sort of contraption to support the brim. I'd use cardboard or kids building blocks or something very stable only... I was at the shop. So I used lots and lots of crochet hooks. Which held it beautifully, until I looked it its direction and then they all fell down. So I laid a towel down and started again and that was enough to hold it. Precariously.

Then I mixed up some PVA (just white, kids glue) with about half and half water and then I used a teaspoon to layer it thickly all over the top of the brim. It looked like this:

 

At this point, I facebooked Sue (who's been anxiously waiting for me to get on with it so she knows it works) making her promise me that it was going to go see-through. Turns out she was more worried about the drips all over the place and knew nothing of the joy of peeling PVA of your fingers so she wasn't the person to turn to. As an aside, PVA peels off fingers (and floors and walls) beautifully. It's also non-toxic so as long as you wash your implements well they're safe to use again. I wouldn't suggest drinking it though.

And then I had to wait. This is the bit about knitting/crochet that I don't like. The bit where it's nothing to do with you how long the thing takes. It's the same with blocking or even just washing and waiting for it to dry. But you have to be patient. I left it all over night and then the whole of this morning (Saturday as I'm writing) so I could get this blog done and answer the e-mails and tidy a little and do customers and stuff.

And then it was time. I gingerly knocked the crochet hooks from underneath. They were a little stuck but not drastically so, I could move them with one finger and then I carefully removed it from the tin and plonked it on my head.

IT WORKS!

 

It bloody works!

It's a little bit wibbly and I think that's because of my lazy/genius plan of using crochet hooks to support it so I really would suggest using blocks or some other sort of proper support all the way around. But to be honest, I'm a bit wibbly in general aren't I? So I really don't mind.

I would also suggest the use of a hat pin to keep it in place. I think a lot of us have lost the art of wearing hats because... well... we don't do it like we used to do we? It's mainly just beanies or whatever but a sophisticated hat like this deserves a sophisticated hat pin. For now that's going to be a kirby grip because for some reason I used three on my quiff rather than the two that I actually needed - it's like my reptile brain new what kind of beauty was going to be on my head this morning. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! But, I'm going on a workshop at the Bead Shop on Thursday (Chris's birthday gift. What a man) so I'll pick Steph's brain about how best to do it.

And that's that. Hope that helps. Not scary. In the slightest. Get to it.

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. the pattern is still on order but I've got my fingers crossed for Monday.

P.p.s. I've bought a lot of copies. Don't worry.