My Cloche Hat

My cloche hat, cloche means bell in French! So I guess I could also call this my bell hat, but I think cloche sounds more fascinating.

It’s kind of funny I know to make a wool hat in the middle of summer, but I thought it would be an easy project to do, something that wouldn’t be to hot sitting on my lap while I knitted or crochet. That’s why I decided that the prefect projects for this summer would be to make a couple of hats. Now I have felted a few things in the past but I have never felted a hat before.

So I went looking for a felted hat pattern and I found this one on Ravelry  and thought that this would be a good one to make. It is called a Beacon Street Cloche. And this was also going to be my first crochet project that I would be felting.

I love how big something turns out before you felt it!

When I want to felt something I wash it on the hottest setting that my washing machine has. I toss in a little detergent and a pair of jeans. I turn on the machine and I wait, I keep checking on my project until it is as felted as much as I would like. For this hat I had to run the hat though three cycles. I had a towel handed and I keep trying the hat one until it was the size I wanted.

I then shaped my hat and sat it outside to dry. After It was dry I tried it on again and I still thought it was a little too big so I ran it through another cycle in the washing machine this time it fitted perfect.

I added a few button on the side that I found at Michaels. Now I am wondering how long before my daughter Ariel steals this hat from me!