making a balmoral bonnet

[fluter]

As mentioned elsewhere, I have a balmoral in progress. It's knitted to a commercial pattern by Anne Carroll Gilmour, but I believe many of the historically inspired bonnet patterns would give similar results.

The impressive thing about this is the size of the crown, before it is felted. The remark in the other thread about a bonnet shaped like a bloated cactus really did seem to be the proper term.



Still, I had the gauge matched up, and had experimentally felted a test swatch, and Anne really does know her stuff. It's knitted very, very loosely, and ends up with a right tight fabric. So beginning with a bonnet that would enclose my head, with the hem sitting on my shoulders; we proceeded to felt it within an inch of its life---as advised by the cognoscenti among the rabble, in the washer using hot water and cold rinse. Here is the result after drying overnight on a handy 61-centimeter bowl from the kitchen.


For comparison, here is the dicing during the knitting process: you can see how much it shrinks up in the vertical dimension.


I still have to procure some grosgrain ribbon, think about a lining fabric, construct a rosette as base for badge or cockade, and so on. The bonnet will probably undergo a couple more immersions and dryings. However i have a distinct advantage in that it does not have that nice, regular shape from the artisan's workshop. It's almost pre-Jocked, you might say!

[Brian K]

Ahhh...is there anything else quite so splendid as the smile of a man who's pleased with his efforts?

[Seanmhair]

That is a beautiful example! thanks for sharing the before and after.

[thescot]

that first picture made you look like Rasta Fluter.

[piperdbh]

If you have a few tennis balls or an old pair of blue jeans, you can put them, along with the slightly damp bonnet in your dryer (with no heat) and let it tumble for a while. That'll jock it pretty nicely. To make the toorie, make a pom-pom and dunk it up and down in hot water for a few minutes. Don't agitate it; just dunk it and maybe swirl it a little, then rinse it in cold water. Set it aside to dry, and when it's dry you can trim it round with a pair of scissors, then sew it on.
Good looking work!

[fluter]

that first picture made you look like Rasta Fluter.

There's a rule of thumb that some knitted items shrink to about 50 percent original size when felted. I think the circumferential shrinkage was a little less, but the vertical/radial was very impressive. OF course the trick is to stop when it's just small enough.

Oh my goodness....

Indeed! I wish now that I'd had SWMBO take a picture of the proto-bonnet covering my head. Ah well, one day I'll make a plain blue one, and I'll be sure to get a photo. In the photo referred to, I had stuffed an old shirt in it, so that it'd sit on my head.

[Ryan Ross]

Indeed! I wish now that I'd had SWMBO take a picture of the proto-bonnet covering my head.

Did it just get dark in here?

[artificer]

Wonderful! What an exciting before and after. I don't know that I'll every get up the pluck to attempt knitting, but after your efforts here, I'm more than tempted to try - or at least see if my old mum is game for an attempt