"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

3/26/15

Blocking a Knit Hat

Frequently I receive emails from folks asking me how I block hats. Well, here's the answer.

First I put a towel on my ironing board. Then I put the hat over a form and steam the top.



Here's my form-a stainless steel mixing bowl.



Sweet Hubby and I were given a set of these as a wedding gift yea these many moons ago. There are three different sizes. The largest one just happens to have the perfect circumference for blocking adult size hats-22 inches. The medium sized one is great for children and baby hats.

After steaming, the top looks pretty good.



To block the bottom half, I lay it flat and steam it like this. I make sure I don't put creases on the sides, and rotate it around.



I typically push and pat here and there with my fingers to get what I want. In this case, I was working on straightening the Latvian braids and making sure the fairisle section was the same height all the way around. I don't usually steam the ribbing because it will destroy the elasticity, though I will do just about anything to stretch it out so I can get the middle of the hat blocked properly. Usually I put a piece of cardboard the proper width just inside the hat. But in this case I didn't need to do that because the ribbing was wide enough already. I steamed the corrugated ribbing to even it out a bit. It doesn't have the same elasticity that regular ribbing does, so I didn't worry about it.

One other thing I did on this hat is block the tassel. It was pretty kinked.



I laid it out on the towel and carefully steamed it straight. I used a metal tapestry needle to 'comb' it out as I steamed.



That's all there is to it. It's not difficult.



Live long and prosper. \\//

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