Ta-Da! The High Society Hat, Finally!

Here it is, folks, the High Society Hat (designed by Annie Modesitt for Romantic Hand Knits but made by me!). I knitted on no. 5 bamboo circular needles. I got lots of help from the Kelly sisters at Arcadia Knitting. Overall, this isn't a hard pattern if you're used to yarn-overs, slipped stitches and a willingness to riiiip back stitches done wrong, which I did lots. You knit the brim first, pick up stitches and finish the rest. I loved the chart pattern. This was the first time I ever that I followed a chart, and I think I'm a convert for life. It must be because I'm a visual person, but reading k2, yo, etc. now feels like I'd be interpreting Latin. What Annie doesn't tell you is that you need to switch over to double-pointed needles (DPNs) once you start decreasing. I didn't with this one, leading to a lot of stretched yarn which could break even now. I adored this project so much I wanted to do it one more time, using the DPNs. I did use a morel-toned version, using the same Classic Silk yarn by Classic Elite Yarns (a delicious blend of cotton, silk and nylon). Wiring the brim wasn't all that difficult either, but then again I've taken millinery classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I used vintage 1950s hat wire that was given to me just prior to a massive estate sale. I got tons of patterns and other stuff too; that's what happens when people know you like to make hats! So put the word out there! I wasn't thrilled with the cloche shape of this hat at first, especially compared with the one in Romantic Hand Knits, but you know, I think it works. The bow I improvised after the one on the 1937 crochet Tuckaway hat (which I cannot find on the Internet right now, but that's where I printed out from a few years ago). Anyone, I'm just thrilled to bits with the results. Charlotte at Vogue Fabrics said, "It's so you." Another man on the El platform asked about my top (Simplicity 3759) and whether the cut-outs were individually appliqued on. Still another guy approached me asking for money while I was on my way to Vogue. Such is the attention that a pretty hat can get you! Anyhow, I'm feeling a little bit competitive because it appears while others on Ravelry have finished knitting this hat, no one else has actually wired it (we're not talking about electricity, but rather putting in a headwire and one at the brim).
Stay tuned for the High Society Hat no. 2 - it's completed, and I'm testing out a rather preppy striped ribbon and vintage buckle. I'll take photographs soon.

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.

Last Call Before Fall Really Hits

Thirty-three percent of you have started your holiday projects. Another 11 percent will begin next month, according to these new poll results. I'm impressed with such diligence. If I do any sewing, knitting or crocheting projects for anyone other than myself I will dive in feet first in the last week before Christmas (I'm often sewing crazily in the last 24 hours before the holiday hits. I stitched a too tight Santa Monica Tee just before Christmas Eve last year. That project, for my sister, undoubtedly sits at the bottom of some drawer, untouched.) I will likely hit my gift stash in the linen closet first for unused doodads, books and other gadgets that could delight my siblings and their offspring before I put my hands to work. My mom? She's another story, that will take some thought and actual shopping if it's of the frugal variety. She doesn't always wear what I make for her, so I'm a little leery in that department.

But for those of you who will commence stitching and knitting presents next months, here are some suggestions: from the land of Posy Gets Cozy, there's this ornament kit. I also like the instructions for this allergy-free baby's blanket, for the sporty guy I'm warming up to this 70s ski hat.

I did do sewing this past weekend, a top from Simplicity 3759. I used the same fabric and pattern as I did for the dress. The main difference here is that I lined it with a pink mesh knit from Vogue Fabrics' $1.29 a yard table. Since I didn't lengthen it to accommodate my long torso, I added a swath of the lining fabric to the bottom, making this project wearable with my low-rise jeans. Overall, I'm happy with this summery tee (I used the same techniques for the dress. Again, as I suggested before, I'd make that neckband waaaayy longer than called for in the pattern and neatly adjust to front gathers first and then work your way back to the seam.). I must have been in a last-call-for-before-fall-really-hits mode because I also worked on a blue bathing suit too. Have any of you sewed this pattern, if so, do you like it?

By the way, I'm done with the High Society Hat, at least the first one. I'd take pictures, but while I'm having a bad hair day, which is actually ideal for hat photographs, I'm having a not-so-good hair color day, which I'd like to fix before I snap some pics. Besides, it's overcast outside, which would make for very some very shadowy photographs.

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?

More Millinery Inspiration...

Some of these images I scanned while I was vintagecrochetgirl and I had a blog strictly on 1930s hats. I didn't keep up the blog, and now it longer exists, except for in fragments on Flickr. Anyhow, these are great inspiration for the wired hats that I've been knitting. I was knitting (and frogging) my latest High Society hat while I watched the Republican convention coverage on my laptop last night. I'm thinking about heading over to Vogue Fabrics tonight with my hat to see what kind of ribbons they might have that could work with the Salmon-color version. For those of you in Illinois, are any of you going to the Elgin Vintage Fashion show next week? I'm thinking about going, if only to get inspiration for the hats I've been making. With a little luck, perhaps I could score some new vintage hat patterns. Even if I don't spend an Abraham Lincoln penny, I'd like to show off my newest hat, perhaps in the vintage fashion contest Friday night. That's the bestest night to go - lots of people love to get dressed up and compete. I wish I had this pattern in my not-so hot hands (they feel dry from working out in the pool). I'd do the blouse; I've seen two fantastic renditions of this top on Patternreview, and the simplicity of it would look great with my new hat, and perhaps the black and white pinstripe skirt pencil skirt I've got in my closet. Vogue Patterns online has a great deal for today only - so I'm thinking about getting Vogue 2859, but it probably won't be in time for next week's show. I may have to make do because I'm just so eager to show off my handiwork. A trip to the closet and thrift store might be in order just so I can have something suitably retro. Or I could finish Simplicity 4179 this weekend.

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.