Topknotched hat

The inspiration for this hat came last spring when I got out my summer straw hats and tried them on; oh, it wasn't so much that I was seeing if they still fit, more a drawing forward of the warm and sunny seasons.  What did happen is that the feel of the scrunch of my hair on top of my head under the hat was now accompanied by the sight of that in the mirror and I could see how lopsided the hat looked and I remembered how hats blow off my head in Victoria's windy weather (usually crossing a street).  And suddenly it was a  "say, I wonder what would happen if……"  moment. 

I went and got the scissors.  I cut a cross in the top of the straw hat.  I pulled my topknot of hair through the opening.  The hat settled perfectly straight on my head; the hair was released so there was no scrunch;  the two cuts made an opening, not a hole, so the edges held the haystack of hair firmly but not too loose or too tight. 

It proved its worth across the summer, did not blow off in even the windiest intersection, was very comfortable without the scrunch, and was a magnet for conversations with people I know and people I didn't.  I cut into another straw hat as well,  a less brimmed one.  It also worked great.

Well, a day or so ago I got out the cool season hats and as I was putting away the straw hats my eyes rested on the cut cross and then came the thought "hey, I wonder what would happen if……"

I already  had in mind to make a helmet type of hat with ear flaps and was in the process of crocheting one (inspired by what  Kathy at Knitting at Koffii had done) but it was too late to leave an opening in the crown.

I also wanted one much sooner than it would take to crochet another.  Something that would 'hold its own' in the wind and protect my ears which seem to be gateways to my sinuses and benefit from shielding. 

The two potholders recently made from one sleeve of a rescued thrift store wool sweater were looked at and the felted fabric certainly 'held its own' against the heat of pots and pans.  I had the other sleeve already felted………

Now I didn't take pictures of the process – thought of it – but was not sure it was going to work so just continued to do it – which means I have to tell you about it in words.  But if I do it again – which is very possible – I will record with the camera.  But, in the meantime, here is what I did.

Imagine the sleeve flat on the table, cut open along the seam.  It's felted and firm.  I took a round pie plate (eight or ten inches – I stuck it on top of my head and it seemed right for the top of a helmet type hat) and put it at the very top of the sleeve against the shoulder curve, chalked the outline, cut it out.  Now, of course, there was the rest of the sleeve with a circle cut from it.  (It will be interesting to see what the next one 'leaves' because it won't likely be the same size sleeve!)  

I folded the remaining piece in half up from the cuff part (which had felted so there was no ribbing) to the bottom of the cut out circle and cut along that fold.  I now had two pieces the width of the sleeve, one having points going up around each side of the circle opening.  I was about to trim off those points: thank goodness I didn't because it occurred to me that they could become earflaps – and they did!

I will not go into detail about sewing the non-pointy piece around the circle (the crown) and then having to undo it partly so I could instead sew the pointy piece and use the non-p0inty piece to fill in the rest of the space around the crown.  The curve of the circle opening nicely fits along the back of the lower skull.
I much like such serendipity in design.  It's almost like you have to get out of the way and just let it happen.

 I sewed the lengths to the crown using linen thread using a blanket stitch to the depth that gave butting of the two pieces being sewed, not overlapping.  That is – no seam allowance occurred.

The postman doesn't have a topknot so I can't ask him to pose for a photo (just teasing, as usual) but will now go and try to rig up something on one of my patient 'models' that gives you the 'picture'. (It turned out – imagine that the tuft of fleece is hair). 

Here's the back view.

I am excited about this design.  Other women – and men – with long hair, when they saw me wearing the straw hats, told me they also had problems with hats as I do – did!  People with dreadlocks might find it worthwhile.  A number of thoughts as to the next one….and the next….keep occurring and I want to try these ideas……   But first…..

I am braving up to install a modem and router on Mac and if, in spite of an info disk that came with them and a tech support call line, if I am without a modem and router, then I will not be able to post – they seem a rather necessary part of this whole computer  adventure. 

Later:  New equipment got 98 % installed (thank you Sean at Telus Tech Support!) and then didn't work (due to an unusual circumstance, we think, and not anyone's fault) so we (Sean and me) undid its connection and put back the old stuff and got it working again and it will be fine until the "unusual circumstance" person returns.

The only worrisome part is that I seem to have an extra cable not attached to anything which I am almost sure was attached to something before…..

Second topknotched hat did not get made.  I did browse through my fabric stash but nothing suggested or encouraged the motivation to begin so I went out on errands and had a very late lunch.