Knit Design - Design your own hat
Design your own any yarn, any size, any stitch hat. This class acts as an approachable step for those considering pattern design. Hats are bite-size design pieces and a great first step into pattern writing.
Teacher: Georgie Hallam
Workshop Duration: Half Day
Description: This class will explore the principles of designing your own hat pattern. Participants will bring to the class their own inkling of an idea for creating a hat with yarn and stitch pattern already chosen. This idea could be something as complicated as laces or cables or as simple as stocking stitch. We will explore how to size hats to fit a wide range of head sizes, how to work with ease and the challenges of different types of stitch patterns.
You will be given the option to use one of a number of different brim and crown treatments and learn how you can apply these to different hat shapes such as berets, beanies and slouchies.
Using a pattern template, we will look at the essential details to include in your pattern and we will discuss the steps from the completed pattern to publication.
Materials: A decent sized blocked swatch (6 x 6 inches) knit in the yarn and stitch pattern you wish to use for your hat. Please measure the tension prior to blocking as well! (You may wish to bring more than one swatch).
Needles in the size used to knit your swatch in both a 40cm circular and dpns. A 40cm circular in a size smaller than used for your swatch. Cable needles, stitch markers, tape measure; your usual collection of necessary notions. Notepaper and pens for taking notes.
Takeaway: At the end of the class you will walk away with a hat pattern, a partially completed sample and the confidence to take the next step.
Level: Intermediate. Participants must be confident knitters with some understanding of hat construction.
So I wrote last week a post asking “Is my making fast fashion?”. And then I did a video on Instagram discussing similar topics in a slightly different way. And as always, you lovely humans have helped me clarify some of my thinking with your thoughtful, clever commentary.
And while I think there is so much more to discuss, here are four key possibly-more-meta ideas that have come up for me out of those conversations.
In using the quote last week that suggested that there was no single answer, and suggesting that this was freeing, I really did mean that we should sit in the grey. Not that the lack of “an” answer to this question should mean we get to ignore the question but rather that the lack of “an” answer means that we need to keep asking bigger more beautiful questions. And keep asking them.
Is my making fast fashion?
Am I living my values or merely thinking them?
And how can I make those two things a little more aligned in this moment?
These are my big beautiful questions.
Yours might be different.
And importantly this leads to point 2.