Hat by Eia in Aisle 5: Clandestino event TONIGHT

Now Eia, my former millinery instructor, always did say you should wear your hat to go grocery shopping. Now she's taking her own advice and showing her own creations in a local grocer just for one night. Now, tell me, if you saw a woman with the above hat on while you were picking up a box of Cheerios, wouldn't that put a smile on your face? Even just for the moment? I'd be grinning ear to ear all the way out to the parking lot even the cashier was snotty and rude and the person in front of me in line appeared to be buying out the entire contents of aisle 2. Perhaps that's why Eia recommends wearing a hat when you're stocking up for the fridge. You need a little levity when you must traipse across a store that's longer than most football fields, these days anyways.

Back to tonight's event. In the true nature of Clandestino events, the web site only mentions vaguely where this trunk show will take place. It'll be at a Lincoln Park (that's in Chicago for you out-of-towners) grocery store. I'm hoping, guessing, that'll it be at the new Whole Foods store off of the main drag known as North Avenue. Lots of traffic, and potential for great publicity for Eia and her incredible (and apparently edible) hats. I can't make it, but maybe you have a window of time to go. Sounds like good eating, lots fo laughter and a great time. And who knows what could happen in Aisle 11? Only the Shadow knows!!! Here's the link to Fashion and Feast.

There's Still Hope for Hatless Chicago

I want to thank PhantomMinuet for her kind words in regards to my Easter bonnet rant. There's still hope to get women at my church to wear hats on Easter. I had this fantasy that I could round up a gaggle of ladies in hats for next year. Bribe 'em with free Starbucks coffees afterwards. We'd be the talk of the town! Little children in the pews would stare at us and remember us forever. That would be cool by me. Of course, it's still better in my book for my hatty self to bring a handsome man in a suit. That would set more tongues wagging, don't you think?

Wearing hats might not be Chicago's strong suit, but making them is. The Windy City is one of the few places in the world where you can study millinery, namely at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Advanced headwear artists from that program are exhibiting their work at the Flatfile Galleries, beginning April 22. This is the same place where Eia exhibited a few years ago. If the closing reception is half as much fun as Eia's party on the premises, I'd go (but I will be out of town this year, sadly). Let's hope for an online gallery. I plan to visit one day next week.

White Women Don't Wear Hats to Church On Easter: My Annual Rant*

Can I say I'm disappointed once again in my fellow sisters, especially the white ones who attend my church? Yes, you. Once again, you've broken my hearts. You didn't wear hats to Mass. Why not? I thought for sure this year you would. You know, I concluded that with the economic crisis/economic downturn/depression/recession/whatever you want to call it now, that you wear something on your head besides your hair. I pictured all of you reaching back into your closets, past the mom jeans, the silky black work blouses, the 1980s pleated pants and into the dusty hat boxes, pulling out broad-brimmed hats from your Princess Diana period, or maybe a 1950s cocktail hat from your Aunt Helene that you just can't bear to let go for a song on eBay. I had this idea that you wanted to forget, just for a little while, that you're having trouble paying your mortgage or that you're getting bored eating oatmeal prepared exactly the same way every morning. I thought maybe you were thinking about the good old days when you and mom would don matching hats and coats to Mass on the big day that allows Easter Bunny to criminally trespass the premises.

But I was wrong. Way wrong, once again. White women don't care about hats, tradition. They just want to wear a nice coat, dress, and pretty shoes. That's it. Wait. Lady who looked like she had purple roving on top of her head? I know I stared at you while I was in line for Communion. I just wanted to get a closer look at your headwear. At first I thought you had dyed part of your locks a royal hue, but on closer inspection, I realized that couldn't be the case. Your hair was lilac in only two spots, atop what looked like two clear plastic eggs. That was different, unique. I bet I wasn't the only ogling your head while on the way up to the altar. Sorry.

Next year, ladies? I'm not wearing an Easter hat. No way. I'm not going to that much effort again. Ok, I'll do it if a special man in my life begs me. Begs me! Or I go to a church that has a reputation for festive hats on Easter. Otherwise, I'm just blending into the masses. That's right. Ripped jeans, flip flots, a blouse that's open to there, no deodorant or make up. You won't be able to find me afterwards. I'll just slip out. Bye!

Anyway, here are some Easter hat related stories. One, two. Yeah, if I sound sore, I am. Give 12-hours and a Guinness, I'll perk up, I promise.
* These pictures were taken late in the day with my nieces and nephews. I'm wearing a strawberry-shaped cocktail hat I sewed - all by hand. True couture!

Great Gatsby Revival - A Cloche Call?

I feel a Great Gasby revival coming on. First, I got an email from a prospective student about the hat that Mia Farrow's wearing in the above photo from the movie based on Scott Fitzgerald's novel. Then I get an email from a newcomer who has moved to Chicago from New Orleans. She digs the flapper look. Then I see a woman reading a "Great Gasby" paperback on the subway. Today, this way cool cloche. What's going on? Are we going to see dropped-waist dresses and bobs next? Possibly, but not here in Chicago, we're just not a retro city the way San Francisco or even the Washington, DC metro area is. What do you think?

Anyhow, back to the cloche in the above photo. Arielle wants to recreate it. However, she tells me emphatically, " I don't need it to be just like that. I just need the shape and the fact that it covers all of the hair."

So if you have any ideas, I'm all ears. It looks like the hat has glass beads on it, doesn't it? Imagine how that would look doing the Charleston on the dance floor! Swinging!

On Grain, Off Track: Vogue 8405

Oops. I just realized that I completely forgot the best hat award for my millinery workshop on Sunday. I said in my class write-up that whoever wore the best hat to class would get a prize. I remembered to bring my box of candies and even my camera, but no goodies for the student with the coolest, most memorable chapeau. Actually, only one student wore at hat. That was Bernadette (Bernie) in the above photo. She blocked the hat she's wearing in another class. I was so impressed. I love the embellishment too - it reminds me of the Jessica McClintock Venice appliques that are all over Vogue Fabrics.

Anyhow, Bernie and the other student, whose name I forget, were all keen on making the fedora style hat (view D) from Vogue 8405. I, on the other hand, decided to use up this damaged fabric - black flowers bleeding blue on a white background, so I opted for view A with its large brim. We all set down to work well before the clock came close to striking 1 p.m., and didn't even come close to finishing our projects by the time the workshop ended at 4 p.m. This is what happens when you make a lined hat on a fabric with a grain. (In my previous class, one woman walked out with a finished unlined felt hat, minus the petersham sweatband. Impressive! She arrived early and didn't rest for a minute during the 3-hour class.)

Here's what we learned this past Sunday:

• The lay-out for view D is completely wrong. Nothing is on grain, according to the Vogue Patterns instructions. Not one part! So follow your gut instincts. Align the pieces with the selvedge edge as you would with a skirt, a shirt, or any other garment.

• Pre-treat your fabric to banish fold lines. My nameless student couldn't get rid of the fold lines in her fabric despite pressing, pressing and pressing. She ended up buying more fabric just so she could get started on her project.

• Hair canvas* is not an embellishment, it's an essential part of the hat. It gives the brim and crown structure. Next time I write up the class description I'll make it crystal clear we're sewing a hat from start to finish, not gussying up a storebought version.

• Finish the hat first, and then trim it. Otherwise, you might buy feathers, buttons and ribbons that just don't work on your completed hat, which truly might look just fine and dandy sans stuff. You'll save yourself money, time and grief.

• Have fun. It's just a hat, not wedding dress.

* The link is for $24 a yard of pricey hair canvas. Rest assured, it also can be found for about $7 a yard, on sale, at Vogue Fabrics.

Hello Again, It's Been A While: Vogue 8405*

So I pick up the phone to call Vogue Fabrics. Just to check in on my hat-making class on Sunday. Last I heard there was no one in the class. So I'm fully expecting to cancel the class. You know, just double-checking, checking it off my Friday list of things to do. I punch the Vogue Fabrics number, which I don't know really by aorta. Really, what's in the sense of memorizing numbers that are programmed into my cell phone but not my landline?
"Vogue Fabrics."
"Is this the business office?"
"It is."
"Oh, is this Evelyn? Hi."
She responds likewise. Nice lady.
"I'm just checking in on my hat-making class. How many sign-ups do I have?"
"Three."
I'm just stunned, like I'm just been told I've won Lotto when I didn't buy a ticket.Blindsided! A week or so ago, last time I caught up with Evelyn, there was no one was in my hat class, but there were two in my leggings workshop. People have their priorities in order these days: learn how to make something that covers the legs, who cares about the head?
"Three people are in my class on Sunday?"
I didn't know this. In fact, if I hadn't called for a status report, where would I have been on Sunday afternoon? Yes! Vogue Fabrics, minus my hat and supplies, working on yet another pair of panties. It takes a moment or two to digest this information. I realize I'm not prepared just yet to teach millinery. Yes, I have the pattern, but I haven't made the hat. I thank Evelyn, hang up the phone. Sheesh, now I'm going to have to spend the better part of tomorrow getting ready to get my hat on Sunday. Yipes.
This means I will need to buy hair canvas, a first in my short life. I will have to cut pattern and fabric....and sew on my machine. At home. All by lonesome, not with a throng of women perusing the pattern books at Vogue outside my classroom door. Can I say I love my Viking Husqvarna, just not sewing at home in my dusty office? Really, can I say that to you women who love nothing more than to sew in silence away from your children, spouses, and various pets? You probably lock your door just to keep the various live creatures at bay. Me? I invite the dust mites inside, and I happily sneeze as they come right on in. Aaachoo, aachoo, aachoo, bless you for stopping on by! For those of you thinking, "Why don't you just bring your machine to Vogue?" Honestly, I'm not about to truck my personal machine to Vogue either, because they have the same exact product there. It's beyond dumb to schlepp my slightly outdated sewing machine, when they've got the latest models there already plugged into the wall. Another thing: I can't just drop into the classroom any old time...sometimes another teacher is there. Can't interrupt, you know.

I did say I'm a deadline sewer in a previous post, so I guess this means I must live up to my word, but it's all good. Really! This last-minute news gives solid purpose to my Saturday. No leisurely browsing on the Internet at 7 a.m.. No dawdling, no drawing, no dandering, no no no! Hair canvas, lining and petersham, oh my! And sewing, which I swear I'm only going to do with a Guinness at my side tomorrow (look: ace seamstress Mac Berg fully supports drinking while sewing, so if she says it's all right, it's A-OK. ) Besides, a four-pack of Guinness is on sale at Dominick's. Now, they're not cold brewskis, so I'm going to have to get some in the morning, get 'em in the fridge, so they're ready when the Viking shivers awake sometime tomorrow afternoon before I go dancing at the Battle of the Bands. I will limit my drinking while sewing to one, maybe two pints, but I'm not driving to the big Swing-dancing event, so I will not be endangering anyone except my long fingernails (which I've known to accidentally snip while I'm cutting fabric. Better that than my actual digits, you know?).

And if I don't finish the hat, that's ok. My students just need to be able to see some of the construction. Look, all hats are basically alike when it comes to making 'em. Some things never change, and millinery is one of them. That said (and you're fully entitled to say, "So what's the point of taking your class then, lady?"), there are some finer points that are difficult to learn outside of hands-on instruction. Like sewing the petersham on so it's looks like an elf did it. Or assimilating the difference between grosgrain and petersham ribbon, and why you even want the stuff inside your hat (basically it acts as a sweatband).

Back to my newfound dilemma: As long as I read and understand the Vogue 8405 instructions and have something tangible to show my students (and offering them fresh cookies never hurts), my workshop will be go well. Oh yeah, I need to wear a hat, and take pictures of the finest hat on the Vogue Fabrics premises. I'll pack up the goods Sunday morning, dress appropriately and I'll be ready to play teacher in the afternoon. I promise I will not be hung-over, the swing-dance crowd drinks water, not alcohol on Saturday nights. Yeah, we're kind of weird that way.

* This is an out-take from a photo session yesterday, outside in the cold. Read the fine print on the instructions from the folks editing the Craft Corps book that they don't want head-shot photos taken with a colorful background. So instead of pitchin', here it is.

They Came, Cut, and Ate Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: the Vogue Fabrics Hat Workshop, no. 1

Carol Duff drove from Royal Oak, Mich. for my first hat-making class at Vogue Fabrics yesterday. Well, she was spending a couple days with her daughter, Rebecca, who also attended the workshop. So the mother-daughter came together for a little wicked weekend fun. Carol, wearing her feathered hat, arrived with enviable sewing supplies: pattern weights; sharp, spring-loaded scissors, shopping bags of wool felt not found in this part of the world: lavender, mustard, grey! The doting mother supplied Rebecca, a sewing novice, with everything she needed for her project, right down to the Schmetz universal needles.

Carol won the hat contest hands-up. She even had this most fabulous, coordinating feather boa (not pictured because it refused to cooperate with my camera). So I gave her a bag of goodies that included a vintage plastic buckle still in its original package, a zipper, Russian veiling, two faux feathers, circa 1940s, and at least two packages of new ribbon. There were a few other items, but I've since forgotten them.

Moving on:

Maria Carlos happily marking up her version of Vogue 8175 with chalk. While she hails from the Chicago area, she takes time out of her busy schedule, which including caring for her 80-something mother, to come to Vogue Fabrics and create magic. She says she sometimes she signs up for a seminar, shows up late, and stays to do her own thing in the classroom to do her own thing even though everyone else has left with a finished project or to head off to a local bar to forget their sewing troubles with a glass of Merlot (isn't this normal for most women?). Maria is also a regular at Vogue Fabrics' Monday night free sewing demos.

Another out-of-towner from Wisconsin, Stephanie Walter (far left) wires the brim of her hat. She actually checked in early for the workshop, worked non-stop through the three hours of the class. Even though there was some hand-sewing (the edge of the brim), she was the only one of the 9 students who walked out the classroom door with a finished chapeau, minus the petersham stitched inside the hat. She walked out too quickly for me to capture her work of art on my digital camera. Darn!
Maria again, testing her her hat, which initially looked like a habit-in-the-making from Doubt's costume-department. Maria is returning for next week's class ready to dive into another hat-making project. Talk about dedication!

Here's what I learned from the first class:
* Remove the pillows displayed on the wall if you want decent pictures. In nearly every photo I took, almost all students looks like they have something sticking out of the back of their heads. One student wore a great 1940s red hat trimmed with white and black petersham, but every one of those blasted pillows ruined my photos. I couldn't even crop them out. However, I will not go so far as taking down the mirror and the thread organizer. I would love to cut out a hole somewhere to make a window. Natural light, where are thee?
* Hand out name tags. It's the best way to keep Carol and Carolyn straight and from turning Henette into Henrietta.
* Not all fabric yardage is alike. I said 3/8 of a yard of fabric on my supply list, which would have been correct if the wool felt in stock weren't so narrow. Darn fabric!
* Expect to leave with a nearly full container of cookies, since it appears most women seem to watch what they eat. At least they're too busy sewing, not munching.

That is all.

Haute Happy Hats

This is a round-up of all things hatty that I've corralled since last week. Most of have a Chicago connection, a few, national, and at least one, international. None so far have any interplanetary ones, but I'm working on it.

First off, milliner Tonya Gross will preview spring collections and sell past season items at a trunk show hosted by Chicago boutique Wolfbait & B-girls Saturday, February 28, 2009.

The Millinery Arts Alliance will be having a "A Hat for All Seasons" tea next Friday afternoon,
3:00 to 5:30 p.m. at The Peninsula Chicago. Reservations are advised.

The vintage chapeau above? It's one on display at the V&A in London. I wrote up a little something on it here last week.

Finally, I'm teaching Sunday at Vogue Fabrics. We're using these two patterns: this out-of-print Vogue pattern and the Flirty Fedora. I'm finishing up a mock-up in craft felt tomorrow for my students. If it's ethical, I might actually sew up the real deal in 100 percent wool felt and enter a hat-making contest at PatternReview.

Last but not least: A Valentine's Day theme knit hat. Cute. Warm. Fitting for the snow predicted tomorrow. Our spring reprieve didn't last long. Darn!

Considering the Flirty Fedora in Wool Felt

There are days when I tell people I'm a hat-maker just to be silly. There are even months even I pretend I'm a milliner with hats so beautiful that they are snatched out of the window display within minutes of their debut. There are even years when I contemplate filling out the occupation section on my income tax forms with that word: hat designer. Some decades (I've been living a while, it just doesn't readily show) I even dream of pitching it all (the residence, the family and the clothes) and just moving somewhere like Australia or England where hats are a Way of Life, not just something amusing like they are here.

Which is a sort of a long way of saying that I think that I've arrived, at least in the town of my birth (Evanston, Ill.). My first hat-making class on February 1 is nearly full. To date, no one is interested in learning how to make a poodle skirt, a tie or even an apron. But a hat? Bring it on, shut down the business office and get me signed up! I've got seven milliners-in-the-making on the list for the first workshop, another two signed up for the one on the 22nd.

Now the hat I really wanted to work on was Vogue 8175, but wouldn't you know not only is now out-of-print, it's unavailable on the Vogue Patterns web site. Views E and F - which have that 1930s tyrolean theme going - are extraordinarily easy to make. However, if it's not available to the masses, I can't use it to instruct my students. To my great (about the size of the Grand Canyon) disappointment I cannot use Vogue 8175 - although if any of my students finds it, he/she is more than welcome to use it.

So...I have to use another pattern. I'm reluctantly selecting the Flirty Fedora. My biggest reservation is that it doesn't call for wool felt, the fabric of choice for Vogue 8175. But I'm going to use the high-quality wool fiber (which differs significantly from craft felt, friends) for the fedora. It will be an experiment of the Tim Gunn "Make It Work" school of thought, but I'm really confident wool felt will be more than up to the task.

Since the wool felt is so firm, I don't think I need to do all that stitching on the brim. I don't consider the top stitching on the crown essential either. Now the profile of the fedora vs. Vogue's rendition looks a little more 1960s Twiggy or Babe Paley ready to hit the social circuits and less Katharine Hepburn or Ginger Rogers headed to the local dance club for a little jitterbug, but that's ok. But I'm cool with that alternative silhouette if my students are.

Now I might purchase the Flirty Fedora to try it on for size (where did that expression come from anyhow?), and so I can converse knowledgeably with my workshop participants. I can also have a completed project for show-and-tell, which helps all those who are visual learners. Ideally, I should have both the Vogue 8175 (it sounds like I'm talking about a product, and not some unique work of art) and the Flirty Fedora, so the two will be on hand on the first of the month. What would be nifty is if I made both hats in the same fabric, and embellished each differently. But who needs two hats in the same color, fabric? Not me. Boring!

Anyhow, part of me is hankering to make a hat in bright raincoat-yellow, something that would be a huge jolt of color in our bleak Chicago landscape. I could see that with a small brown feather, worn with a smart black and white houndstooth jacket. Shoulder pads mandatory! (That's me, although you might disagree fervently.) Vogue Fabrics only has the wool felt in black and white in the Evanston store. Rogie Sussman tells me there will be some hat-worthy felt online. For something really unique, I'd try felting - buy an ounce or two of the roving that's near the sewing machine department. Cut the hat parts, felt, sew to make a conversation piece that will start on the street and end with you getting a free drink somewhere! What do you think?

Stuck in the Knitting Quagmire

It's been one of those rebellious weekends where I didn't want to sew because it was sunny and why stitch in the ditch when I could be outside basking in the sunshine knitting in the trenches? Of course, any knitting usually calls for some regressive work so all progress made in two days gets undone in a matter of hours...until you have nothing to show for your 48 hours off. Oh well, which is a long way to say that my Aqueduct hat is not nearly complete...although it was FOUR stitches from being done when I tried on the thing and found that it looked like a child's bonnet, which is not the look that I'm after. I compared my work to the picture in the Knitting Millinery book and they didn't resemble twins separated at birth. So it was off to the LYS for major frogging, and then yesterday I found I was off by one stitch, so I did some ripping on my own, and now I'm Officially Stuck because I dropped one of my markers and I'm not sure it's in the right spot and wouldn't you know the LYS is closed today and I likely will not be able to go there until Wednesday earliest, maybe Thursday to further work on the Little Hat That Could? I'm tired of it already which you know in the World of Sewing I would be more than done with whatever I was making and I would have worn it three times already. Really. I need to ignore the the weather and make some face time with the Viking Husqvarna just so I can feel like I'm finishing garments faster than a snail stuck in mud's pace.
So instead of getting a picture of my completed chapeau, you get a scan of Eugenia Kim's 2004 playing cards. Aren't they cool? You'll probably see more of these as other knitting projects get stalled like semis on the highway.

Help a Hat-Obsessed Knitter Find a Particular Yarn*

What I need is one skein, just one, of Gedifra Wellness 2115, lot 9100. This is so I can finish my third and what I do believe is the best rendition of the High Society Hat. I'm in the third and last lacy repeat on this pattern, and I don't think I'm going to have enough to finish this project. The hat is looking so pretty, and so brightly blue that I swear birds are going to mistake it for a human head-sized piece of sky when I finally do get to wear it (and I am! I swear. I just don't know when. It would be the perfect thing to wear on a gloomy day like today. We Chicagoans need our clear cloudless horizon whenever we can get it. When I can't command sunshine at a moment's notice, I figure a chapeau such as mine can go a long way to making someone's day a little happier. But I digress.)

Anyhow, I've searched on Ravelry, posted a desperate message on the Gedifra yarn group there, and generally yelled from every Internet mountain top I can think of. So far, I've heard one yodel from a Ravelrist who cannot help. Maybe it's time for a Twitter post.

So...I may need to put aside hat-in-progress to start another at least until I get what's necessary to finish up. It's not like there aren't any other unfinished sewing projects that could stand an afternoon's attention. Like the Simplicity dress pattern I recently started and somewhat abandoned because I didn't like how the V-neck was looking. I looked at it again the other day, and I see a "save" possibility that I really need to explore on an overcast day like today. However, the impulse is to start and finish something new. Like a Simplicity raglan style top that I think I could start and finish in about three hours.

Some kind of creativity will occur in the next 12 hours, I'm not just not sure what. To sew or knit that is the question, and a great slogan for a t-shirt. I might swatch Annie Modesitt's pattern for the Aquaduct hat (no distant photo exists to show you, unfortunately). Believe it or not, the brim pattern for the Aquaduct hat is exactly the same as the High Society Hat. Boring. But I'm not sure how to change it up so I just might do it as is.

Here's what I got on the schedule for this week: Stitch N' Bitch Edgewater, Wednesday; Nordstrom North Michigan Avenue designer event, Thursday (free appetizer and drinks!); big partee at Loopy Yarns' new store (it's not listed on the store's blog, but I know it's happening)
or Edgewater Antique Mall on Friday (complimentary beverages and eats again) and YarnCon Saturday. I plan to buy nothing (that's expensive) at any of the events. Seriously.
* This the Gedifra Wellness yarn of my dreams worked up in a sleeveless summer top. Just in case you need to see if you've got this fiber in your collection.

What's Up Next for the Hat Lady? A poll.

Hat no. 1
Hat. no 2
Hat no. 3
It's odd how two completely different people who don't even know each other call me "Hat Lady." One's the designer for my web site, another probably reads this blog, but suffice to she say she owns more than one dog. Anyhow both affectionately call me "Hat Lady." The designer even sent me a unsigned postcard from Paris with my moniker. I thought it was my other friend, which puzzled me because while she said she had just gotten her passport, she didn't tell she was going to France. The mystery was finally uncovered after Web man emailed and asked if I had gotten his overseas missive.

Anyhow, I'm working on High Society Hat no. 3. I will admit I'm kind of getting tired of the pattern, but I want something to do that's simple while I'm traveling Wednesday through Friday. A project that doesn't entail long-distance calls to Arcadia Knitting. So, the last High Society Hat for a while is the handiwork of the moment.

In the meantime, I'm pondering what I should work on next. Hat no. 1, I know was included in my last survey, but since I haven't tackled it yet, I'm including it yet again. I know I want to do this number in a mocha brown and kelly green to go with this fabulous $15 hand-sewn 1940s blouse I got at the Elgin vintage fashion show a few years ago. It barely fits my water-aerobics toned upper frame, but it's just so photogenic and demands an ooh-la-la hat like no. 1. Both no. 2 and no. 3 are from Boutique Knits: 20 Must-Have Accessories by Laura Irwin. My local library doesn't have this book now, so I might have to order it from another. I like the 1920s vibe of each hat, particularly the one on no. 3's model who looks like an extra from the silent film Metropolis.

Monday's Millinery Milieu

The High Society Hat - the mushroom-colored one - is done. It's supremely cute, and very 1930s-looking since I got the brim just right with the helpful eye of Kathy Kelly over at Arcadia Knitting on Saturday (which was by the way, was so woefully wet all day long there was nothing else to do but knit if you weren't in a neighborhood sandbagged to the hilt). I'd take photographs of my latest creation but it's overcast outside, not even the least bit sunny. I usually like a little bit of sun so I can do my best work with the camera. In any event, I'm so thrilled with my latest knitwear that I'm all set to make 1930s-inspired hats for the rest of my life, and I think I could given all the vintage (and retro-inspired) patterns that are out there. I just ordered Knitting Millinery by Annie Modesitt, who was once a theatrical milliner. I'm hoping I can get the book by this weekend, and then I can started on a new project, which I can take with me on an airplane trip next week.

One disclaimer about the book. I've seen it already, so I know the layout and the photography could have been better, but I just want to cranking on another one of Annie's hats, and the Aqueduct hat looks the most enticing (it's another short-brimmed lace hat). Maybe the book will tell me how it got its name. If any of you have actually have made any of the hats in Knitting Millinery, I'd love to hear from you. Until the sun comes out tomorrow (really it's supposed to, and Lord knows we Chicagoans deserve it after all the rain we got this weekend), I'll be back with some photos of hats and at least one top I sewed up a week ago.

More on Hats...*

I just finished embellishing my first High Society Hat with a big self-fabric bow. I can't decide if it's too large or just right. Better on the you can see it from a quarter-mile away side than something so small it barely registers on the fashion radar. In any event, it's already attached to the hat, if I remove it, I risk cutting the yarn on the hat and then all the hard work will unravel in one fell swoop faster than Tracy Ullman's work did when it got trapped in the door of a fast-moving automobile. But it's easier to deal with projects that fall apart when they're small and inexpensive (mine's in the $14 ballpark) than when they're large and expensive (anything over $30). I just love the low risk of making a hat...if you make a mistake, you only have to riiiiiiippp back a few roows as I did with the mushroom-colored version of this hat yesterday. Hopefully, I can manage to complete this project with my yarn-overs in their correct spots. I'm eager to start on a new project, either a pair of these or this hat. I'm in such a hatty mood these days...especially the ones with a retro vibe. Maybe it's the economy. Perhaps it's the cooler weather - I wore a sweatercoat this morning. It could even be my response to what's going in the Presidential Elections. The answer to it all is hats. Here are a few that I've marked as favorites on Flickr: I like this one belonging to to kuki.deprada.net, this unfinished crochetted hat, Pamoolah's 1940s knitted hat that I want to recreate, still another one of Pamoolah's creations and no. 2 on this 1930s Simplicity pattern. By the way, there's a good chance I'll put what I should make for a vote this week. Stay ultra-tuned.
*The image above? That's Phillip Treacy's hat. Way cool, huh?

1930s Hat Patterns On the Brain

I've got 1930s knitted and crocheted hats on my brain ever since completing the first version of my High Society hat. Boy, this was an easy project, although it looks hard. Even other knitters who made this hat on Ravelry have yet to wire the brim. I'll need to show them the way. This two-skein project inspired me to work on other similar hats. Now the High Society hat isn't technically a 1930s hat, although it's got the look with the short brim. Now I'm on the hunt for bonafide 1930-39 knitted hat patterns with wired brims. I've got a few in my personal collection that are crocheted, but I'm eager to craft one made on two needles. I've always loved hats from this time even though I really have the hourglass figure more suitable for the fuller skirts of the 1940s. There is a school of thought though that chapeaux created during World War II were the most creative ever. Yes, period. If you look at some of that were made in Occupied Paris, you just might agree. I might have search around online to see if I can find any of those.

In my eagerness to find some free patterns, I did a little searching. Here's a Depression-era hat pattern I like, the price I don't. At this site, you can buy instructions for a hat and a dress. Remember, you didn't walk out of the house back without either. In anything less, you'd be considered a rebel or communist or both. In the free department, I really like this 1930s crochet pagoda hat pattern. I even have gimp from that era. If you have access to online newspaper archives, they are apparently a great source of crochet hat patterns. This one is from 1935, but even I can't access it unless I pay $$. (I'd check to see if you can see the full newspaper page through your local library, college or ant hill. Just kidding about the last part. If you're not familiar with the silhouettes from the 1940s, click on this primer. I'm really warming up to to the pattern for this 1942 crocheted hat, it's got a brim I like, but I'd lose the tassel.

There are other freebies that I printed out a while ago so I'll have to go hunting for those when I have a moment or two or three.
* The swatch above is for the mushroom-colored iteration of the High Society hat, coming soon to a computer screen near you.

Cat-enabled knitting...*

I was recently at the Little Brothers of the Elderly vacation facility in Rochelle, Ill. Out in the country with a window overlooking corn taller than this Olympic swimmer, I felt content. No noise could be heard unless you count the rustling of the abovementioned vegetable stalks. This is no small thing for an urban dweller who hears motorcycle rumbles and ambulance sirens every few minutes.

So in Rochelle, I got a chance to kick back a little and knit. Some of that was done under the ceiling fan of the screened porch. Aah, that was nice, but I particularly enjoyed the company of this very friendly feline who would hop on your lap if you asked. While I savored his/her presence on my lap, it did come with a price. Claws that could draw blood even through a skirt and a slip. So naturally I wasn't terribly inclined to check out this cat's gender. I didn't want to get any more scratches. However, It Cat purred while I knitted the second version of the High Society hat. This newest rendition is mushroom-colored, the first one, which I will take pictures of very soon, is salmon. I just finished putting on the brim wire and covering it up with a blanket stitch. I tried my latest masterpiece on for size - testing it out with some of my vintage 1930s and 1940s belts that I've made. I especially like it with a floral fabric belt with a mint-green plastic buckle. The beauty of this hat is that you can embellish however you want. I can even see it with a burlap ribbon tacked down with a big light blue Depression-era two-inch wide button.

Here are some early thoughts on the High Society hat:
1. Go with the smallest size unless you have an unusually large head. Yarn stretches. The hat will likely be blown off if it's too big.
2. The pattern doesn't tell you this, but switch over to double-pointed needles once you start decreasing. I did a lot of stretching of the yarn in the prototype and I was afraid I was going to break the yarn. It might be even weak now and still break. Oh well. Learn and live, or something like that.
3. Cut the wire with a little extra so you can tweak the fit. When you're pleased, wind thread where the two ends meet until it's tight. Then tack the wire to the hat with pins. Annie Modesitt recommends double wire, I don't think that's necessary, but then again I've been using vintage 1950s millinery wire, which I understand is more durable than the modern stuff.
4. Modesitt also suggests using a crochet hook to attach the wire to the hat, but I found that much too unwieldy. I prefer a flexible, plastic darning needle. Just do a blanket stitch around and around until the wire disappears beneath the yarn.
5. Blocking is unnecessary. I blocked my hat an overturned plastic bowl swathed with a terry cloth towel. Hat didn't look any different after steam from my iron.
* Yes, I am wearing a t shirt that reads, "Just One More Row Before I Go," which I bought from White Lies Designs.

Onward and Upwards with the High Society Hat*

My knitting will be kicking into high gear tomorrow when I go to jury duty. I'm bringing the High Society hat project with me and if I'm stuck waiting all day I swear that hat is going to be done by dusk. There isn't any reason I shouldn't be. I've just got three pattern repeats and then the top of the hat to do. That's it. Yes, the chapeau will be complete. Then it will be onto blocking the thing. Since I don't have my hatblock around, I'm thinking about how I can cheat on this part. I could use something like this or even this. What if I just skipped it all together and just did the wiring? What do you think, Milliners of the World who are reading this? Have you ever not blocked a hat and then later wished you had? I need your advice now, and badly. Please aid me in my indecisive moment. To block or not to block is the question. And it just occurred to me now as I was writing. I don't mind blocking, but it feels like an unnecessary step. I've worn at least one thing I've knitted that wasn't blocked and I lived to tell the fashionable tale. No one could tell (although the wire fibers themselves would probably enjoy a steam bath - who doesn't?). Anyhow, it's just food for early-morning thought right now as I'm already thinking about Hat no. 2.
Okay, I've returned from jury duty which was adjourned at noon, just in time for lunch. While there was absolutely no action and no one in the room was called, I got lots done on the hat. I'm in the last repeat pattern, which means I could be done knitting the baby by tonight. I feel a little stunned at the thought. I mean this was the chapeau I was avoiding. I had it in my head that it was going to be the hardest thing not ever but at least in the month of August. It's only the 19th; I've got plenty of August to embark on even more challenging projects. Now that's a truly dizzying thought. You know what? I'm just proud of myself for just diving into this pattern. That's right. I give myself a pat on the back for that part. Now I'm thinking of emailing Annie Modesitt to find out if there's a way I can bypass blocking. It's just too warm to do anything more than walk (not run) around the block, and most certainly it's not the weather to do anything that involves steam.
* By the way, here's a link to a Continental Airlines story I wrote on hats.

Considering Ellie*

The High Society Hat Project has officially begun. It's not as snotty as you would think. Of course, the name alone just summons all sorts of images of snobbism and elitism. You know - of women who hold up their noses when they see a haggard woman without a proper hat and gloves walk by. Or ladies who have tea everyday at 2:30 p.m. on the dot without fail, a proper Earl Grey - but no bags of dust in hot water please. The hat might even make you think of your great-grandma shushing all the grand kids at Mass when the priest is giving the homily and laying down the law when a fight breaks over whether the pew should be up or down. This is what you might imagine about a woman (most certainly not a gal) who dons a High Society hat.

I'll admit I had none of those ideas when I saw the High Society hat designed by Annie Modesitt. No, I just took one look and said, "How gorgeous. I want that hat!" But then I shuddered to think how difficult it might be to make. While I knew it wouldn't take much yarn, I just pictured myself all tangled up on the two skeins of yarn it took to knit up the thing. Yes, I took one peek at the instructions in Romantic Hand-Knits and then the four pages long (very grey to my eyes) of type on Millinery. I felt afraid, not too afraid, but I did remember the 1940s crochet hat that went well until I wired it, and the whole thing turned into a Saturday Night prop for Amy Sedaris. Wobbly, tornado-blown brim created by me. The whole, expensive fiasco sits in my linen closet, crushed by a load of pillowcases. I'm not sure what I'm waiting for, why I don't just ditch it already?

But that's what I think of when I even consider playing Milliner (Winona Ryder does it so much better in this movie which I've never seen).

I dwell on that much more than now that the actual knitting is going much more speedily than I thought. I've just begun! And I'm almost already done. Gosh. I'm never going to knit sweaters or skirts that months to complete after this. Never. Not when I can start and finish a project in about a week, which is what it takes for me to sew a skirt or a dress these days between laying out the pattern, cutting it up the fabric and stitching. (Not counting this dress I just made, of course. One day!) And the size of the project. Oh, my. This wee hat, circular needles and one yarnball, fit into a sandwich baggie. Yes, a plastic bag the size of six-inch Subway sandwich. Unbelievable. So I can naturally fit this into my tote along with a couple of newspaper sections. Oh day soon, I'm going to be able to carry the project - along with the pattern in its plastic protector sheet - in my skirt pocket. This will not fit a jean pocket, I know. Not enough room, not to mention that I might poke myself with a needle or scrape myself on the elbow with it. But I could get it into a medium-size skirt pocket. Then I would never ever be without something to do. My digits would never be idle, not for a minute, no. I'd be cranking out lots of hats, so many that some would need to be sold, if only to pay for this:This is Ellie, different from the one that Alicia Paulson owns. I've no idea what she (the object above, not Alicia) costs, since there are no price tags listed on this web site. But I like her already if not for her modest name, her brown eyes and hair (much like my own, except my locks are highlighted and I've got bangs). But brown-eyed brunettes are always much more fun! Now, if Ellie would only smile, she'd be perfect. No, she's ideal now with her Clara Bow lips stained ruby red. Now if I were able to purchase her for princessly sum, I'd put her to work straight away. Modeling hats, of course! Her primary work would be modeling all of the hats I make, starting with the High Society hat (see above). Then I'd protect her dark hair with this hat, and then maybe this, all of them made by me.

If it turns out Ellie is out of my financial reach for the moment, that's fine. She's a reproduction. There will be more like her. Now I could get the real McCoy (or McKay as the name was mutated in Buster Keaton's film on the South's most famous conflict - not the Civil War. ) at the Broadway Antique Market. Now the display model has blonde locks, and she's really old - from the 1940s although she really doesn't look like it. She doesn't have a dowager's hump, a cane, fake teeth, none of those tell-tale signs of a 70+year-old. But I really don't want an antique, especially one that can break. If I'm going to have a display piece for my hats, it's going to be one that's readily replaced. None of these wringing out hankies or t-shirt edges over a one-a-kind old thing that can't be fixed cheaply. Forget it. I've got enough World War II memorabilia in my home.

So that's it. I'm saving my nickels, dimes and pennies for Ellie because she's worth it. She'd have a special place here and I'd treat her well. She'd have the best food. Wait, she can't eat. Never mind.
* The swatch above is for the High Society hat!

Going for the Gusto*

I'm a knitting wussie. So much of it intimidates me, I wish I could just swan dive into like some other fanatics out there. You know the ones. Those that buy three hanks of Brown Sheep Cotton fleece and three days later whip out a lacy top or skirt. Or those that have at least three projects going at once, and rotate them according to their level of speed like so many pots on a stove. Those lacy knit gloves? Stuck. Put on the back burner. Moss stitch beret? Making progress, but I need someone to help me rip back a row. Sweater? Swatching and blocking that later this evening. It seems to me too that those with large stashes of yarn, in other words, those knitters who get buried by a snowfall of skeins when they open the closet, they're the ones always working their sticks (though not necessarily reducing the collection aka stash). Me? My yarn collection is so small, it scarcely merits closet space. Whereas I'm hasty to cut out fabric and patterns, knitting takes me so much time that if I were running the Chicago Marathon, I'd do best to start now. It doesn't matter that the starting line hasn't been set up yet. Then there's the budget. If I buy any yarn, by golly, I'm going to knit now, not wait until winter when it's suitably cold enough to be doing K2, P2 with 100 percent wool. I don't want my yarn to gather any dust, and I want my money's worth right away. What's more, I really think about what I'm going to do for the longest time. I've got more 100 projects tagged favorite on Ravelry, but nothing queued. I don't even know how to use that function. So it was quite amusing to read in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting, that there are users who actually watch what others are lining up in their list of projects. That would actually be an interesting function to add to Patternreview. Maybe it's already available there. I dunno.

I'm thinking that the knitters who learn the most are the ones who invest the most, whether it's time, money or both. They aren't content to just sit on the sidelines, cheering on players, they jump the pointy fence, stumble on the dirt knees first (ouch!) and play. If they fumble with the bumble, help the opponent score a point, it doesn't matter, they're learning. It's all about the journey, which clearly needs to be the topic of a t-shirt, if it's not already somewhere, somehow.

I think I have that hunger to just make lots of mistakes fast and quick with sewing. I've tossed out dozens of projects. I've gots lots of unfinished projects in shopping bags throughout my home. A closet collection collaborating and planning future growth. Pins dangerously poking about on the bedroom floor, rolling in laughter on the living hardwood floor.

Meanwhile, the knitting needles are lined up nice, prim and proper behind a glassed in bookshelf. Ditto the knitting needles. The yarns are sequestered in a beaten-up shopping bag on a hanger in the front closet. There's nothing remotely knitting-related on my to-do. No "go to Arcadia today," or "test out lace pattern this weekend" or even "stock up on Malabrigo for bolero jacket." There's a bit of lingering fear, a fear of commitment - like how long will it take to make the cute 1930s knit hat in Romantic Hand Knits? Or the pom pom peds - how quickly can I master the pattern to the point that I'm cranking out a pair lickety-split without thinking? I just want to get to the point where I'm done in the way I am with sewing. Materials? Check. Pattern? Cut, cut, and CUT. Stitch, stitch, stitch. A little pressing. Steam here, steam there. I'm done. I'm wearing the sewn garment hot off the iron in a matter of hours.

Knitting seems like it's a lot of pre-crafting plotting. Get enough of same color lot yarn. Swatch. Rewrite pattern that so that it fits you and not your sister. Start project in fits like you're hand-cranking a Ford Model T. Speed only comes after you add ethanol. If you're lucky, you'll have something in a matter of 48 to 72 hours. Nothing, nothing, not even Tinker Bell, comes overnight. A lot, from what I read, gets done within months. Some gets aside and finished a year later. Gosh, what a slow-cooker hobby. Where's the instant gratification - but not a straightforward knit-and-purl scarf - that can be accomplished without enlisting an army of experts in person or online? I just dunno. Hence my hesitation.

Then again, knitting is a portable project as I've mentioned many times before. I'm not quite ready to give it up just yet. But I'm not in love. I don't swoon over skeins of yarn. I'm not ready to buy a drop-spindle let alone a spinning wheel just so that I can say that I not only carded the fiber but I spun the yarn. That's too much, although it does appeal to me in a Tasha Tudor sort of way. I feel the same way about hairpin lace. I've got the tool, but I hem and haw at the edge of the pool. (A fitting analogy given that I'm always in the warm-water pool for aerobics thrice weekly). Will it be cold?

With that in mind, I'm ready to sign off the computer and do something crafty. Will it be Vogue Fabrics or Arcadia Knitting? Vogue is a cheaper fix, Arcadia feels more like I'm signing up for Pre-Cana classes and the pre-wedding jitters are already kicking in. What about you? What hobbies are you ready to try but not quite ready to carry out?

Enough on my knitterly anxieties. A little bit of this and that:

• At Judith M Millinery - a wonderful leopard print beaver hatbody, not always available apparently.

• Upcoming Vogue Fabrics sale. Go Saturday afternoon to beat the rush and hit up the bargains. Also Kwik Sew patterns are 20 percent off (!!!) through Aug. 9. Go. Buy. Now.
  

• Pattern Poll Results. Forty percent of you love McCalls, 40 percent love all big four patterns (McCalls, Vogue, Butterick and Simplicity) ; 20 percent of you like Vogue. I'm the lone star in this crowd: I mostly love Simplicity, seemingly a small-shouldered girl's beeeeest friend.

* The swatch above is from a gauge-swatch cardigan started in Des Moines two years ago. I need more yarn to complete it.

A Little Bit Hatty...*

Here's a hodge-podge of millinery-related information:
If you're in London, sign up for the last of two spots in a millinery class at the Make Lounge. If you're interested in the future of millinery, you might be interested in the following, which was sent to me by Eia:

On behalf of the Fashion Department at SAIC, we ask for your support for the 2008 Raymond Hudd Millinery Awards as an investment in the future of millinery design. Gifts of any amount are welcome.

The Millinery Program in the Department of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is rapidly growing in size and reputation. The department is deeply grateful to everyone who has supported the development of our students’ work.

The Fashion Department’s recent move to the Sage Studios in the historic Sullivan Center has allowed the Millinery Program to expand course offerings and classroom space, and to create a dedicated hat display area within the Fashion Resource Center. The Program strives to provide students with public exhibition opportunities, and to facilitate their connection with the Chicago art and fashion community. During the opening celebration for the Sage Studios, the millinery students were able to display their exciting hat designs for Mayor Richard M. Daley and members of the Fashion Advisory Council, as well as hundreds of dedication guests. Our Millinery Design students also recently participated in Fleurotica, a hat runway show, at the Garfield Park Conservatory.

The Raymond Hudd Millinery Awards were created last year to recognize the extraordinary efforts of our talented hat design students, helping them gain further millinery education or get a start in business. Raymond Hudd is a renowned Chicago hat designer, and the awards were named to honor his body of work as well as his enthusiastic support of new milliners.

If you have any questions about the award or would like to make a donation by credit card please feel free to contact Ingrid Messer in the Development Office at 312.899.5146 or imesse@saic.edu. Checks may be made out to "SAIC" with a memo specifying "Raymond Hudd Millinery Award" and mailed to:
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Office of Development and Alumni Affairs
37 S. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL 60603-9847
* This is me wearing a 1930s tyrolean hat I bought at Silver Moon when it was on Halsted Street.