The Felt Nut Hat is a top down construct and incorporates felting technique. We have added a leaf trim to add some charm to the hat.

Gauge swatch for felting: This is necessary before making the hat. Work rounds 1 to 5 in pattern. Fasten off.

Test the felting process as follows:

Felting: Start by wearing gloves and boiling a pot of water. Alternate between boiling the piece in water, stirring continuously, and rinsing in cold water, agitating with hands and
constantly wringing, at intervals of 5 minutes each. Repeat until the stitches begin to fuse together and the piece gets visibly fuzzy and matted. Wring out excess water, and in a lingerie bag, put to spin dry. After spin cycle, remove and leave to sun dry, or tumble dry. The resulting piece should have shrunk and felted!

For the swatch, It should shrink to 5.5”

If it is smaller, reduce the agitation and heat while felting. If it is bigger, go down a hook size.

The Unfelted size of the hat measures 23” in circumference and 12” in height and after felting it became 18” in circumference and 9” in height.

Our tester nailahjavid has this to add :-

“Felting Process what worked for me - rinsing in boiling hot water, agitating, wringing and rinsing in cold water - repeat for 10 to 15 minutes and washed at 60° in washing machine (I have a rinse cycle set in my wm which runs at 60°).

I lost a lot of colour from the yarn whilst felting (the water was dark grey by the time I was done) so it would be a good idea to mention “add salt” in the water to save it from becoming dull and losing colour of the yarn. I washed using a fabric softener only as the wool had started to smell as well, whilst felting.“

She used Vardhman WoolWarm in grey about 160 yards and a 7 mm hook to get gauge.

Un-felted measurements : 35” Circumference, 11” height
Felted measurements : 26” Circumference, 8.5” Height