If it involves some kind of fibre chances are I've at least tried it. This blog follows my adventures in sewing, dying, weaving, spinning, knitting and the rest. The best way to learn is by doing, well actually from learning from other peoples' mistakes, but when that isn't available...
Please, learn from my escapades!

Sunday 15 April 2012

labourer's cap a.k.a. the Monmouth museum cap third attempt

So just under the wire for my third and last attempt for the labourer's cap in our regional arts and sciences competition held yesterday.  I worked within the information I could gather from studying the museum photo and the dimensions written by Rutt.  Something doesn't jive but I couldn't tell you exactly what that is so I went in between the two.
The hat is comfy, functional and well received.  It doesn't look the same as the museum photo but at this point, I'm pretty happy with my hat.
The original picture is here:  http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/large/item/GTJ01788/
The dimensions from Rutt are 22" around at the base and only 8" tall.  The image looks to be taller than the diameter.  Was this from the camera angle?  Was it stretched after being on this stand for too long?  Was Rutt incorrect in his measurements?  Can't answer those unless I go to Monmouth and measure myself so I guess I'll have to be content with what I have.
I was wondering about the gauge.  The hat I estimate to have about 50 rows and 60 sts around.  At one stitch per centimeter, that's 2.5 sts per inch.  At 8" it would be 6.25 rows per inch.  Whew that's compact.  The closest I was able to get was 5 rows per inch on my first attempt but I think my stitches were a little more per inch too.
So my final hat was in my own hand spun shetland yarn.  The rows ended up being half of the museum photo's but the dimensions were pretty darn close.  It's comfy too so next winter I have a hat!

Wednesday 11 April 2012

labourer's cap a.k.a. the Monmouth museum cap

So number two of the cap has been done for a bit now.  I've had two or three false starts with the third rendition of the cap.  At this gauge (2.75 sts to the inch) I've discovered that it's easy to incorrectly measure gauge.  I thought I had 3 sts/inch.  That makes a big difference in your cast on sts.
Argh.  Well, I'm trusting Fate to deliver me a good outcome.  I was going to use a commercial yarn, but it has synthetic in it.  Now I have the practice enough to spin the right thickness of yarn, so I'm using hand spun now instead.  Come on now, the competition is only three days away ;-)


Here's second attempt below the first.  They want you to full the hat down to size.  I can't see the people in the 16th century using this technique like this, but hey, who am I?