Felted Hat

Last year a woman in my knitting guild gave us all a pattern that she had that is similar to the Fiber Trends Felted Hat pattern. I made it and then I put it away and never felted it. I kept putting it off because I couldn't find a bowl anywhere to block it on that I thought would be similar to the size of my head. I really wanted to felt the hat, but was afraid, I guess.

Anyway, last Sunday I decided that I was going to felt that hat no matter what. In the meantime I had been reading about how to felt, and I had bought a cotton pillowcase cover to put the hat in, since I didn't want all those fibers to get into my washing machine motor. I put the hat into the pillowcase cover, set the water to hot and put my washing machine on the lowest water setting. I put an old pair of blue jeans in there with it and let it fill up with water and agitate. To begin with I checked about every 5 minutes. When it seemed obvious it was going to take much longer than that, I started checking about every 10 minutes. It ended up taking about 45 minutes for the hat to felt and shrink to what I thought would be the right size. I then shaped it on the bowl I had found, and noticed that the edges were turning up but were floppy. So, I rolled up some washcloths and put them inside the brim of the hat all the way around. It looks like the shape I want, so I've been letting it sit that way for several days. I'll probably take it all off this weekend and see how it shapes out. It looks pretty good right now, so I'll see how it looks this weekend and if it holds it shape. I will try to take a photo of the block in progress and post it within the next couple of days.

I'm really excited about the hat and I hope it holds its shape and fits my head. Several of the women in my knitting guild had brought the ones they had made and they were really nice. They were all similar to the picture above, which is the picture from the pattern from Fiber Trends.