Hats

Let's be clear about this, I hate wearing hats. I think it's because I have lots of hair with lots of energy of its own, and I hate it getting squashed. Also, not only do I have big hands, as mentioned in the previous post, but I have a big head as well as big hair. In fact, everyone in my family has a big head. We can never get hats to fit us. I always told my kids it was because we had lots of brains. However, I can appreciate hats on other people.

In Melbourne, women really only wear hats for the Spring Racing Carnival. Of course a hat, or at the very least a fascinator, is de rigeur for Melbourne Cup Day. Milliners must exist almost solely on the hats they sell for this festival.

I am not including sun hats here. Of course, in Australia we are very conscious of the hole in the ozone layer right over us, and only the most foolhardy go far in the summer without a hat. Even I wear a disgusting old camping hat outside. Let's face it, it's a horrid hat or mega wrinkles and cancer.

There are some fabulous hats on the models in old kniiting books.

Look at this classy number from the 40s.

This elegant style from a wartime book adds a veiled hat to the military themed tailored jacket and turns the ensemble into high fashion.

Until I started collecting old patterns, I never knew that people knitted and crocheted hats. Well, I knew they knitted beanies, but I mean real hats. Here's a lovely book from the forties with some very elegant styles.
 

This is a very stylish stripey number, but what I'm actually most impressed with are the kiss curls at the front. What a lot of hairspray to keep them in place. The pattern actually calls for red and  white stripes, which is a bit alarming.

 

Some of the nicest hats are crocheted.

 I particularly like this

crownless style.

Hats were very popular in the fifties and for the first few years of the sixties.

Here's fabulous Patons book from the fifties with interesting variations on the beanie for the stylish woman.

Here is my favourite                            

This lovely little cap is knitted in angora and lurex thread. It simply has a hair band inserted in the front band to keep it in place.

Here is the child's version:

How adorable is that? By the way, it's a tassle at the back, not her ponytail as I thought at first.
And these triplets are just wonderful.

This pattern is described as an old favourite. It's certainly now one of my favourites.

But why do they all look horrible on me?

Thanks to Australian Country Spinners for permission to use Patons images.