Knitted & Felted Glengarry bonnet

**usonian** · 10th February 13, 11:30 AM

My first attempt at a custom knitting pattern. The band starts from the Balmoral pattern I've been using, by Anne Carrol Gilmour. The rest I came up with on my own. I'm pretty pleased with the results. Next time around I'm going to make the top panel about 10 rows longer in the middle, and use stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch; this time it shrank a little more than I expected lengthwise, and pulled the rest of the hat with it, which you can kind of see in the side view below. I think it would be preferable for the slight curve to go the other way.

The band is petersham ribbon, the cockade is 2.25" grosgrain.

I have an enormous head, and the proportions look a little bit small in the profile view... but I think that's just the way the hat fits me, not the hat itself. I need to have some smaller-headed friends try it on.

Snowstorm Glengarry - 9 by Usonian, on Flickr

Snowstorm Glengarry - 8 by Usonian, on Flickr

Snowstorm Glengarry - 7 by Usonian, on Flickr

Snowstorm Glengarry - 5 by Usonian, on Flickr

Snowstorm Glengarry - 1 by Usonian, on Flickr

Snowstorm Glengarry - 2 by Usonian, on Flickr

**Aspiringloser** · 10th February 13, 12:12 PM

SWEET! You just did the dicing then did two sets of increases with a decrease in the middle? I'm impressed.

**usonian** · 10th February 13, 02:43 PM

After finishing the dicing, I shaped and bound off the two curved sides of the hat (one at a time) using short rows, AKA "Wrap and Turn/W&T", where you turn around and go back the other direction before you get to the end of the row; I was able to build the curves that way by making progressively shorter and shorter rows, skewed slightly towards the front of the hat.

Then I knit a separate diamond-ish shaped panel and stitched that to the rest of the hat (just a simple overhand stitch, no need to get fancy since it all gets felted together).

Next time around I may try making the top panel right in place by picking up the stitches along the top edges.

**Aspiringloser** · 10th February 13, 02:47 PM

Ah, interesting. So far with my knitting, I've only used short rows for turning the heel of the few pairs of socks I've knit. I wonder if there are any patterns for a glengarry out there on the internet?

**usonian** · 10th February 13, 02:56 PM

None that I've found, which is why I decided to try coming up with my own! I believe there's one in this "Folk Hats" book but I think it's just knitted, not felted. I saw one on Ravelry and wasn't crazy about it.

i'll try to give my notes a once-over in the next couple of days - if I can make them into something intelligible I'll send you a copy.

**Aspiringloser** · 10th February 13, 02:57 PM

Sweet!!!

**tulloch** · 11th February 13, 05:43 AM

You may be onto something quite good there.

**usonian** · 21st February 13, 09:26 AM

Glengarry number 2, after a couple of tweaks to the pattern. This one is fully felted and came out too small for my head, so I enlisted a friend for a test fitting (no trim on this one yet):

Glengarry #2 Test Fitting by Usonian, on Flickr

Glengarry #2 Test Fitting by Usonian, on Flickr

I need to make the top panel even longer; it's still pulling the rest of the hat a little bit out of the shape I'm going for when it felts. Overall I'm pretty happy, though! I'm working on #3 with some additional changes to add a bit more shaping to the front of the hat, to give it just a little more of that forward angle you sometimes see.

**piperdbh** · 21st February 13, 10:44 AM

That dicing is really impressive. Are the blocks 2 sts wide by 4 sts high?

**usonian** · 21st February 13, 11:15 AM

Thanks! Yes, the dicing is 2 stitches x 4 rows; knitting shrinks more vertically than horizontally during felting, and it always seems to come out just right. It knits up surprisingly quickly and easily, too - you do wind up with a lot of floats on the inside, but they're pretty short and don't get in the way.