Monday 24 September 2007

Some hats are very hard to photograph


I always find this style of hat particularly hard to photograph, and this example even more so than usual.

This is a sixteenth century 'flat cap' based on some that I went to study at the V&A museum earlier this year. Its a little different to the standard pattern for these seen on the re-enactment circuit in as much as this has a single thickness brim with overlapping splits or 'petals' might be a better description worked into it. The single thickness stockinette tends to want to curl, so it needs very heavy fulling and prolonged pressing after knitting to get it to not curl up in wear, and I just can't get the photo to convey that at all.


When worn, these need to be very much perched on the head, and my glass hat stand is really a little small to show this off properly so its gone a bit floppy. Still, it was a lovely yarn to work with, a thick, slightly coarse undyed Welsh wool that appeared from the cone to be of some vintage but which washed up beautifully. I'm hoping to have time to make several more in this pattern before the National Living History Fair at Warwick in October.

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