It feels so good to have garments and matching accessories to choose from. Once I completed my Blank Page Sweater, I thought it would be just perfect to have a hat to go with it. After all, my newly designed garment is meant to be worn also as a standalone, without a coat, in autumn and early spring, and those are the days when protecting head from cold is a very good idea.
My Blank Page Sweater is special in its symbolic meaning of starting fresh, opening a new chapter, writing another story on a blank page. A matching hat also needs to have that special feel to it.
In the past, I designed InsideOut Hat with a squerish crown, which makes it easy to put the hat on with one hand only but I wanted Blank Page Hat to have a bit softer curve to the crown. As a result, I created a crown that firmly covers the head but does not stretch over; it keeps its shape, hence, will look good on any head.
In one of the short videos, I explain how to block your Blank Page Hat if you do not have a hat blocker. It is very simple, and requires some bubble wrap or any plastic bags, we all–unfortunately–have tons of around the house.
The hat features the same characteristic horizontal ribbing as the one introduced in the Blank Page Sweater. The ribbed section adds squishiness to this accessory, and is quite a bold element making this hat stand out although the whole design is based on knit and purl stitches and yarn in one color.
If you prefer flat drying, the design of Blank Page Hat is suitable for such blocking, and you will not get any weird angles after the hat is dry.
Blank Page Hat looks like a natural continuation of the Blank Page Sweater, thus, I consider the two an obvious and nondetachable set. With one exception… if you replace the Blank Page Hat with the Blank Page Headband.
If you have long hair and often do a pony tail or a bun, you surely know the problem of what to do with the hair when wearing a hat. We either need to have a slouchy hat to accommodate the hair (but then, when we want to have our hair loose, the slouchiness of the hat is too much) or the hat is not deep enough and while we accommodate the hair, our ears get cold.
Headbands are the most wonderful alternative there is for people with long hair. In fact, also for people with short hair if you wear a very specific hairdos, which you do not to spoil with a hat stretched over your head.
Naturally, Blank Page Headband has to be as special as Blank Page Sweater and Blank Page Hat. It features various-height sections to comfortably cover forehead and ears yet fit back of the neck without fabric rolling there. I based this design on such a combination of knit and purl stitches that this accessory becomes fully reversible. Also, the short rows that I used are very simple and produce non visible wraps. I explain the technique in my video; this method is my favorite one and I recommend it whenever you need to add short rows. I even relate to it in my Blank Page Sweater instructions as an optional feature that you can add to your version of the sweater, if you need it.
Although, my Blank Page Headband is a small accessory you will enjoy making it and wearing it for sure. There are some secret tricks to creating it, which adds to the whole fun, and all that is hidden in my instruction.
It is simply a must-have accessory for you:
The patterns are available as separate PDF files from the pattern section → Blank Page Hat and → Blank Page Headband as well as a set of three patterns → Blank Page Set
Enjoy making your own Blank Page accessories while writing your own Blank Page story, and make sure to let me know how it turned out.
~ Cathliin
Leave a Reply