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Blocking a handmade hat

 




I made this hat, and as you can see the stitches are not very beautiful, they're not even, the shape of the hat is not nice.

What can I do with it?

I can block it!!! My previous blogpost is about blocking knit projects (https://www.erikadesigncanada.com/post/blocking-your-handmade-projects ), and hats are no exceptions.



Ok, so how do we block a hat?

First, we soak the hat with our favorite wool soap/detergent for about 15 minutes. This amount of time should be enough to soak it all.


After we gently squeezed the water out (no twisting!), we roll the hat in a towel. I usually step on the towel (with the hat in it), to get all the excess water out of the hat.

The last step is to get our blocking mat and lay the hat on it. We can stretch the hat to our measurements, shape it, and we can make sure the stitches are even before we let it air dry.

If you don't have a blocking mat, but you have a small ball, you can put the hat on it to dry. The ball gives the hat a very nice, round shape. If you have balloons at home, you can use one as a ball.

Or if you have a mannequin head (all round), you can use that one as well.

I don't block every hat I make, but when I need to shape a hat like this, I do block it. The other hats I block are the ones that I made with lace pattern.

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Comments

  1. LennyDecember 13, 2023 at 6:52 PM

    I am trying to get your blocking knit projects page and it comes in with a potential virus. I really don't like some of my knit hats and someone told me try to block it. I did one with a baby hat and I don' t notice any difference. I really want my knitting stitches to be more uniform. Help.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Erika DesignDecember 14, 2023 at 12:55 PM

    Hi Lenny,
    I'm not sure why my page comes in with a potential virus warning. I've never had this problem before.
    When you think that your stitches/designs aren't showing, you can most definitely try and block your handmade hats. But keep in mind that not every material respond to blocking. The best material for blocking is cotton.
    Soak your project, squeeze the excess water out with a towel. If you have a ball that's the same size as your hat, use that. Put the hat on the ball, stretching out the stitches (be careful not to stretch it too much). If you don't have a ball, use your blocking mat. Hope this helps.

    ReplyDelete

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