Scottish bonnet

So, Percival asked for a Scottish bonnet for his Ren Faire persona, so I got out my wool and needles, looked up an 'authentic' pattern and began. It was meant to be fulled (felted) and was to be at least two inches larger than wanted; I used old sock wool in a forest green from Percival's great grandmother, which I inherited, and size 10 US needles.

Well, I am convinced that the person who wrote the pattern as well as the peeps on websites who talk about stove-top fulling have never actually done it because I had very little shrinkage and a lot of colour loss with the addition of castile soap - which several recommended to 'aid in fulling'. Not a problem - it's a nice sea green colour and the pattern calls for a drawstring in the ribbing anyhow - but I have had to boil the yarn to stitch the ribbing into a binding, so it matches.

The old way to full things was to dampen them (with old urine, but I figure an ammonia solution would work) and 'waulk ' them across a big table with about ten or twelve others - push pull. No heat. Adding soap or alkali of any kind really takes down the colour, which is great if that's what you want, but a nasty surprise if you paid $25 a hank (or two) for Jameson's wool, as the pattern recommended.


Certainly it was not worth throwing this one small item into the washer, even on extra small, as the pattern recommended. Very wasteful of resources, and unScottish. I am glad the bonnet is floppy, as it would have been at the time, not the tight little thing they became. Next time I will know if I want to make a classic blue one to simply make it the size I want.