The Hat Junkie

Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards

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Yes, I knit this beautiful Skymning shawl by Sophia Kammeborn

And just like that, it’s over. I blinked and summer went away. I’m not sure that I swam enough or spent enough time in the garden, but I gave it my best shot.

The older I get, the more I am aware that sometimes you just gotta hang up the closed sign and go for coffee with your husband at the Point General Store in Blue rocks, because life doesn’t wait for anyone.

If you live remotely close or plan to visit then you really need to make Blue Rocks a destination. Tony and I even went on a kayak tour. Would you believe I had never been on a kayak? For shame! Paddling around Blue Rocks is a bit like paddling into prehistoric times. I highly recommend this mode of time travel.

The view from The Point General store in Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia
A picnic at The Annapolis Basin Conference Centre

Mostly we stuck around the Lunenburg area, but our son Dustin, who has been bit by the the theatre bug, spent two weeks at a musical theatre camp outside of Annapolis Royal. To be honest, two weeks without adolescent (and he’s actually an easy one) is on par with any tropical vacation. The most relaxing aspect of theses two weeks was how easy it was to keep the fridge stocked. Seriously, I can hardly remember a time when a freshly baked batch of granola lasted more than a few hours.

When it was time to retrieve our young and extremely tall food inhaler, our dear friend , the beyond talented, extremely generous and adorable Cynthia Myers asked if she could tag along to watch the closing show.

Cynthia is Dustin’s theatre teacher, a talented actor, musician and playwright. She’s every parent’s dream. That educator that truly cares about each kid as though they were her own. I can’t tell you how many times we say, “Thank Heavens for Cynthia”. If your child has the slightest interest in acting and you live on the south shore of Nova Scotia then sign ’em up quick! Click here

So, “tag along” she did and she just happened to bring along this little picnic. You know, the kind where you have a cooler and a beautiful picnic basket with enamel ware and then you pull out the homemade chicken and 3 kinds of salads and a homemade pie and a bottle of wine and a thermos of coffee…

Hand Felted Merino Wool Cloche

I’ll share some more backward glances at summer later, but I don’t want you to think that I am anything less than ecstatic at the prospect of autumn. I love autumn! Give me crisp, cool mornings, oranges, reds, brown and yellows with sparkly skies for 200 days of the year, please.

In hat land what I currently most love making are my hand felted hats. I know that in the name of feeding that tall child I need to also make my best seller hats, but these ones are my babies. My plan is to create a separate online shop for my one of a kind creations. I’ll, of course, keep you posted, but feel free to enquire if the hat is calling your name.

Hand Felted Merino wool dangling flower cloche

This is the sister hat. Wait, I have to show you the top…

Pretty cute, eh? I do love a classic hat, but I also love a slightly askew version of a classic hat. You know, like an elegant 1920s style cloche with a flower growing out of the top. Just a wee bit nutty.

hand woven cloche

I am also trying to make more of my Maisie hats. These are made from fabric that was woven for me by Marrie of Double Whale Handwoven, here in Lunenburg. She, unfortunately, won’t be weaving me any more fabric because she said it took too many beers for her to get through weaving so many metres of these tightly woven fabrics. I get it, I really do, but I am heartbroken. The fabrics are just so beautiful. I still have a good amount of several colours, but once they are gone they are gone.

This beautiful lady walked into my studio and walked away with this orange version. Actually, I own the same one. Orange lovers unite! (Dyslexics of the world untie!) Sorry, that just popped into my head.

Handwoven wool cloche

But if I could own another one (no, I can’t take them all) it would be this one. Aren’t those greens beautiful? And the sweater…Did you notice the sweater???

I designed this! Really, I did. How crazy is that? Next month will be my two year kniteversary. I’m sorry to brag, but I’m proud of myself. I have gone through my whole life believing that I am completely hopeless at math, but turns out that I just needed to put it all into the context of knitting. Who knew? Designing is really not rocket science. I could show you. It’s very basic math and just deciding what stitch patterns you want to put together. O.K. I’m simplifying it a little bit, but it’s just like anything else, it seems impossible until you take the first step. I won’t be writing out the pattern anytime soon because I learned that pattern writing is really time consuming, but I am working on writing out some other, simpler designs.

I actually planned to quit trying to write out patterns because of time and because it’s hard to get a pattern seen. But I have since come to the conclusion that it’s good for my chaotic mind to go through the exercise of writing these things down even without financial gain. I’m not, by nature, a writer downer. By nature I am a keep everything stored in some remote crevice of my brain kind of person. If, in time, I figure out a way to sell some patterns, that will be a bonus.

Speaking of writing things down…I am currently reading Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. My friend Devorah came for a visit and gave me this book. Like everything that Anne Lamott writes, it’s wonderful. The timing of receiving this book was also pretty perfect.

One of my reasons for quitting social media was because I felt like every paragraph I wrote on Facebook took me one step further away from writing a book. Writing is just one more of those things that I enjoy doing, but don’t do enough of. ( It’s hanging out with my gardening, dancing, hiking, biking, swimming and cooking.)

Facebook, for me, was a quick and easy way to tell stories. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I felt like the constant sharing of anecdotes was taking away my motivation to write my thoughts out in long form. Not sure I’ll get that book written, but this book is pretty inspirational.

She talks about how when her brother was a child he had a book report to write on birds. He had, before him, encyclopedias and library books on many different birds and he was freaking out at the enormity of the task before him. His father said, take it one bird at a time, son. One bird at a time. Seems like advice that can be applied to most things in life.

I will leave you with one last little tale and then a few more summer photos.

This is Brian Davis. He bought this hat from me. He is my neighbour and friend and I love him. Less than two years ago he could be seen running the streets of Lunenburg. Brian has ALS. Brian is dying. I know that’s not the most tactful way of putting it, but I think it’s the most appropriate.

You see, Brian is dying the same way he has lived, with passion and curiosity, intensity and openness. He wheels up to my door regularly and shares his excitement for having been approved as an organ donor and shares his excitement for his green burial and the wonders of his wheel chair and he tells me how much he loves every last little thing he is still able to do and how he is grateful for the wonderful life he has had. He’s not pretending that he’s not dying. He tried every treatment out there and he felt they helped, but he knows that he has to go. Death is his final adventure and he’s living every moment of it. Of course I want him to stay, but he is leaving me and anyone else who is close to him with the most incredible gift. He is sharing his courage with us.

I apologize if I choked you up there. Here are a few more summer customer photos. Thanks for spending some time with me.

nemesis socks by Ambrose Smithhttps://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nemesis-socks-2

Hats for sunny days.

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My girl/boy next door hat can be purchased HERE.

I told myself I would write a new blog post when the Lupins were in bloom. Well, the Lupins are just on their way out, but better late than never. (Not to worry. I did get a pretty photo.)

Before we get to pretty flowers we need to talk about this hat. Currently, this is my favourite hat. You can be sure there will be another favourite in a couple of weeks, but this is it right now. I think of it as the girl/boy next door hat. It doesn’t flaunt its beauty. It’s easy to not notice it and instead turn your attention to the colourful bomb shell on the next hat rack over. But if you pay attention you might notice that it’s just a damn good hat. It has tons of sun protection. The ties keep it on your head in a breeze and wheat straw is so subtly beautiful that it really doesn’t need to be upstaged by flowers.

I actually made this hat for my brother-in-law, Chuck, who was visiting from Maine with my amazing sister-in-law, Amy.

He requested a hat for working outdoors that would really give him proper sun protection. Et Voilà! I was delighted to send him home with a hat, but also sad to not have the hat anymore. So, I made another one and then as soon as it was done I walked across the street to show my 84 year old neighbour, Margaret, and she bought it. I was delighted that she bought the hat, but also sad to not have it in my studio again. So, I made another one…and that’s where this story stays, for now.

Oh wait, I forgot I promised you Lupins.

Lupins on the Back Harbour Trail of Lunenburg, NS

Worth waiting for, don’t you think? We had a cold and wet spring/ early summer. I don’t generally do well in wet weather. It gets in my bones. But I developed Meteorological Stockholm syndrome. ( I made that up). It’s a phenomenon where you start to sympathise or even love your weather captor. The colours of rainy days are so complex and moody that I found myself mostly enjoying what everyone around me called miserable. I didn’t voice my feelings out loud because, is there anything more repulsive than a positive, cheery person when you are committed to gloom. But now that the sun has come out in spades I fee like it’s safe to confess that I really enjoyed that wet weather. Knitting helps, too.

Did someone say knitting?

I knit myself a dress. I kind of made it up as I went along. Here’s the back.

It took forever and a day, but I really enjoyed the process. As soon as it was done I headed down to The Mariner’s Daughter to show them. Faye kindly offered to take my photo, so that I can show you. The yarn is a Shetland yarn from Hawthorne Valley Farm in the Annapolis Valley. Tony took me to Gaspereau Valley Fibres on my birthday and that’s where I found it. The yarn is hard to come by because it’s from their flock of five Shetland sheep. These are the natural sheep shades. I also knit the sweater I’m holding in my hand, but I better get back to hats.

I finally got around to making this hat for Tiffany.

Tiffany’s wheat straw hat.

Isn’t she beautiful? Tiffany did some modelling for me a while back and I owed her a hat.

I have to tell you about the ribbon on this hat. I got an email from a lady who said that she had a whole pile of antique ribbon and she would be happy to give it to me if I could use it. I actually considered declining. ( I know, I know..) she had told me that it was over 100 years old and in my experience old textiles usually crumble. Luckily, Tony convinced me to take a look and it’s a good thing I’m married to that guy. There were spools and spools of the most beautiful ribbon that was perfectly preserved in acid free paper. All from France and Italy. It’s hard to actually use it, but I think it’s better to get it out there in the world than to spend the rest of its days on a shelf in my studio. My only criteria for using this ribbon is that the hat needs to be worthy of the ribbon. I make these straw braid hats on a straw braid sewing machine from the same era, so I consider them to be worthy.

My straw braid sewing machine is truly my prized possession. I see from scrolling back through my blog that I bought it 2 years ago. I am just now beginning to feel confident that I can form a hat without a complete melt down. This hat was the first two coloured straw hat that I made. Oh the possibilities! And did I mention that the pile of antique ribbon also came with vintage millinery flowers? That’s what you are looking at in the middle of the straw bows.

My Nellie Jane Hat is available HERE.

But as much as I love making my straw braid hats, I also love my hand blocked hats. In the case of the straw braid hats, I sew thin braided straw around and around and form the hat while I go. In the case of the straw above I start with a woven sack (It’s called a hood) and using steam and wooden hat blocks I shape the hat. It’s a simpler process and it allows me to have hats in different price ranges.

I was working on this one in my studio when a lovely lady came in, fell in love with it and commissioned me to make her this one…

Did I mention that I hand dye this fabric? It’s all organic cotton and hemp jersey. Although I am currently smitten with the simple hat at the top of this post, I concede that sometimes bling is the thing. Actually, on most days I walk around looking like a Christmas tree. I just love colour.

It’s been so long since I last wrote that I’m not done yet. Bear with me for one more photo.

Amanda’s hat

It was really rewarding to make this hat for Amanda. She has a very small head size. That’s not unusual, but people with small or large head sizes can rarely find hats to fit them. Amanda came by my studio and picked out the straw and the fabric. It’s extra special for me to make a hat for someone who has never had a properly fitting hat.

Well, that’s all for hat news right now. A quick word before I go about my absence from Facebook and Instagram. Although I miss many of the lovely interactions I had there, I feel I did the right thing. I needed to make my world a bit smaller. I am so happy to go back to slow communication. I spent much of my life writing letters to friends and when I began blogging it had that same slow communication feeling, just transferred to a key board. But when Facebook came along it slowly took away my need to write in full paragraphs. Updating my blog occasionally is better for me than small, frequent social media posts. But I do miss you guys and I really appreciate the comments. I don’t always make the comments public if they seem like they were meant to be private, but I read them all and they lift me up.

I also really appreciate people sharing my blog with friends. It helps me enormously.

I wish you all warm breezes, plenty of gardening time, lots of knitting and swimming in lakes. That’s my idea of perfection anyways.

Hope to see you soon.

Anna

A Hat Making Demonstration and Lots of Chatter

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Hello again, Thanks for tuning in. Last I left you, I was off to visit family in Toronto. Nothing like being air lifted out of your everyday reality to help one contemplate life. One little trip, so many conclusions. More on that later, but first I have a video for you. I thought you might like to join me in my studio for a hatting demonstration. I also threw in some lovely Lunenburg interludes. This town can make anyone feel like a professional photographer/ videographer. It’s just so darn colourful here.

This Thumbnail makes me look a psychopathic hat killer.

Hope you enjoyed that. If you’re still with me I’ll share some of my life altering revelations from my trip to Toronto. (I’m prone to exaggeration.)

View from the Art Gallery of Ontario

It was a real treat to have a few days of walking around the city by myself. I visited some friends, saw family and even took myself to the Art Gallery of Ontario. I grew up in Toronto, but I don’t think I have been to the AGO since I was a child. To be honest, I have never thought of myself as a real museum person. I have trouble taking anything in on demand or in large quantities. I love to sit in Cafés and stare at one picture for an hour.

But I heard so much about the renovations that were done and I’m older now, so I decided to give the museum thing another shot. So glad I did. There was an exhibition about the impressionist painters of Paris during the Industrial revolution. I was truly blown away. Looking at these paintings was like a religious experience. I’m not even going to try to explain it. It’s just amazing to witness such beauty.

One thing I did, being alone, was I took my time and only walked around around the one exhibit. When I got tired, I sat in the café and rested.

And then I went back to the same exhibit and took it all in again. This really worked for me.

Ack, I can’t find the name of the artist. Please fill me in.

When a long time customer, who is a plein air painter, asked me to make her a hat that she wouldn’t mind getting paint on, I figured the best solution was to pre splatter the hat for her. (Tony suggested that this could become a theme, where I make chef hats with food stains, mechanic hats with oil stains…)

Anyways, the colours in the above painting inspired the colours in this hat.

A pre splatted painting hat for Plein Air painters

Here’s another photo of Toronto for you, taken from my brother’s office.

Toronto from Above.

I think the above photo is what a lot of people think of when they think Toronto, but once you get down into the neighbourhoods it’s actually a very colourful city.

China Town, Toronto

O.K, Now for those Toronto induced life revelations. I’m a bit of a tangential person, so you need patience to hear the end of a sentence.

I visited a couple of fellow artisan friends. One was, Karyn of Lilliput hats. Karyn is an amazing milliner, but she’s also an inspiring business woman. It was humbling to see how hard she works, running a store, overseeing her assistants and also travelling across North America to do high end craft shows.

And then I visited my friend, Andrea, of Pomp and Ceremony. Andrea makes beautiful mens’ accessories from Liberty of London Fabric. I was also blown away by how hard she is working, doing the show circuit and making all those ties and pocket squares by herself.

Andrea gave me a bag of Liberty of London fabric scraps and they are slowly being turned into fascinators.

Both of these visits made me realize that I was a tad spoiled. I have been a bit whiny lately because my head is always full of new ideas and it’s hard to make myself go into production mode where I make best seller hats that I have been making for years. Creatively, I just want to go to the next thing, but financially I need to also make what people want.

You are probably not grieving for my little problem and you shouldn’t. My hardest days still entail working in my beautiful studio, taking breaks to go for walks and not needing to travel anywhere further than my local Post Office to sell my work. In short, I am blessed. I have a pretty sweet deal.

I also was keenly aware of how privileged I am to live in Nova Scotia. Not that we don’t have our problems here, but my day to day life is pretty amazing. I am surrounded by quiet, fresh air, space and beauty. A family doctor would be nice, but at least it’s easier to stay healthy here.

Lynda in her new hand felted plaid hat

I have beautiful customers, like Lynda, who come right to my studio to buy hats.

I’m knitting the Kidalton Cardigan by Kate Davies

At lunch I get to sit in my yard and knit.

Meerschaum socks in Felicia Knock’s yak sock yarn

And knit…….

Also Meerschaum socks in Mondim sock yarn.

And when I need a change of scenery I just walk down the street to The Mariner’s Daughter to inhale the colours and textures of all that beautiful yarn. I have a beautiful life.

So, thanks for joining me. I really appreciated the comments on my last blog. Sorry, I’m horrid at responding. I did respond in my mind, but it may not have reached you. Take Care and hope to see you soon. Anna

All Your Beautiful Faces

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Beautiful Mandy in a handdyed wheat straw braid hat.

Hello Everyone, I have missed you. As you may know, I took the radical step of deleting my social media accounts. Was it a month ago…two months ago? At first it felt very awkward. With twitching fingers, I kept picking up my phone, trying to find an app to open. There are only so many times you can check your email. It took about a week, but my fingers did eventually stop twitching and I even found myself forgetting to carry my phone from one room to the next.

I have gone back to listening to podcasts, audio books and the radio. Slowly, slowly, I am recovering my attention span. Knitting is still a major work distraction, but I’m not giving up my knitting needles. In fact, let it be known that I would like to be buried with knitting needles in my hands. I also won’t report that without social media I am all calm, cool and collected. I wasn’t calm, cool, and collected before social media was invented, so it wouldn’t stand to reason that I would be now. But I am happier and I am enjoying existing in only one reality.

With the absence of social media, I have finally found the time and the will to work on my website. I can’t tell you how many years I have been thinking about creating a page of customer photos. Well, I did it! I finally did it! You can find this page by clicking on “Collections” and then scrolling to “Hat Junkies” . Or just click HERE. It makes me so happy to look at all your beautiful faces. Over the years I have connected with so many women and even a few men who have purchased hats from me. I have been tipped with many a hug, both physical and virtual. Meeting my customers is the best part of my work. If you don’t find your face on this page please email me a photo. I promise to include you.

I have been very busy in the hat studio filling a Spring order for Beauchapeau Hat Shop in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario. One of these days I will get to this beautiful store in person.

I have also been playing with my antique straw braid sewing machine. You can see one of my latest creations on Mandy in the top photo. Mandy actually bought a different hat, but I was quite impressed with how beautiful she looked in this hat. I also made this pretty one…

Wheat straw braid hat with organic cotton and hemp band

I ordered a couple of yards of the striped organic cotton and hemp fabric, which makes up the band, just to see if I liked it. I do! There will be more. this particular hat is a large size (23.5 or 24″”) So, if she is calling to you and the hat fits, let me know.

And then, of course, there is my knitting. One of the things I do while hand sewing flowers is watch knitting videos. I am a huge fan of Bluprint (formerly Craftsy) It’s a paid subscription, but so worth it. It is full of online courses in knitting, crochet, sewing, cooking, calligraphy. Basically, anything that matters. Well, I was watching this course in shawl design and I learned that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to design a shawl. Shawls are basically a template and then you fill in the template with the stitches that you want. I seriously thought that you needed to have an advanced Mathematics degree to understand pattern design. But this truly mathematically challenged human has designed a shawl. Here it is! Wrinkles and all…

I made this using Mungo by Rosa Pomar, purchased at The Mariner’s Daughter in Lunenburg.
In other news, I am very temporarily leaving this beautiful place…
My beautiful Lunenburg, NS

And heading to Toronto to visit my family. I had to make myself a new “city hat”.

My new hat. Fabric woven in Lunenburg by Double Whale Handwoven Designs


I explained to Tony that I needed to make a new hat because I wanted to look like a tough city chick while in Toronto. I didn’t want to look like a country girl frolicking through the daisies. He laughed and assured me that I still look like a country girl frolicking through the daisies. Oh well, I should probably just own it.

It’s been a pleasure chatting with you. I love your comments, so send them along. Love, Anna