A Millinery Weekend

Sometime ago I volunteered to participate in a hat interest subgroup of the Potomac Craftsmen Guild. I don’t go to many of the Guild meetings since they are on Saturday mornings when I prefer to be working in my garden. However, thanks to Norma’s persistence and power of persuasion a few of us in the hat group have been meeting nearly monthly for outings or sometimes a coaching session in my Studio-to-be. This past weekend, to celebrate the return of my long-stored hat block collection, we decided on a blocking workshop. There is drying-time involved in hat blocking so I scheduled the class for both Saturday and Sunday afternoons for a couple hours each. It’s really too short a time to cover everything involved but since most of the group are knitters and weavers I thought it would be fun for them to jump in and discover the millinery magic of shaping hats.

Choosing which shape and figuring out size is always the hardest part but everyone was enthusiastic and some even worked up two straw hats. I’d ordered a dozen parasisal straws from JudithM and we used all but two. (Goodie! I can make a couple of new hats this Spring too.) Mary Ellen brought some felt cartwheels she’d had for quite some time. She has a small head size so was delighted to be able to use one of my nicest (antique!) 5-piece hat blocks. I think she was very happy with her result. Unfortunately, I was so busy I took very few pictures and those I took failed, thanks to a flipped AVI switch on my new camera which I’d failed to notice in the hustle bustle. Hopefully one of the participants will send a picture to share.

We did have two fun afternoons and Poco wore himself out running up and down the stairs supervising everyone. In June we will do a "show and tell" at the Craftsmen Guild meeting in Maryland. Since I’m looking forward to seeing the finished hats I’ll have to show up for this one. Hmmmmmmmm. Which hat shall I wear?

P.S. Thanks to Norma for the picture of the works in progress. Blocked crowns are drying in the sun on the deck. Finished hats to come later.

K Q:-)

Comments

[Marie]

Super! Glad you're back to actual teaching. You are such a good instructor.

[jill]

Well dang! I would have love to have seen the creative output! I do know what you mean about Saturday gardening days, especially in the spring time. Miss you!