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A Hat Gift From The Great Beyond

June 19, 2020 by HatJunkie

Beautiful Brian who passed away September 2019

Hello Everyone, I’m sorry to have not written sooner. Times are so strange and my mind is alternatively full and empty of thoughts and the idea of trying to condense the ruckus in my brain into words has felt daunting.

I also have a habit of wanting to talk about everything and then I overwhelm myself to the point where I can’t begin. But today I thought, one story, tell one story. So, that’s what I will do.

Last September my dear friend, Brian Davis, left this world with a bang. He had ALS and fought like the dickens (and won) to be able to donate his organs. Apparently his story reached far away places and I am told has set some new standards for organ donation. Anyways, Brian used to like to roll up in his wheel chair and tell me about how much he loved every last thing he was able to do. Seeing someone face death with such grace was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life.

He really loved this hat that I made for him. He sort of became a champion of my garden hats. His daughter Becky fell in love with the hat, so he bought one for her and he left the one on his head to his son. One day, maybe a couple of weeks before leaving this earth, he wheeled up my driveway. I came out to see him and he handed me a fist full of cash. He said, ” Anna, Susan’s birthday is on May 23rd. I want you to make her a hat like this and give it to Susan on her birthday.” Susan is his wife. I choked back my tears and promised him that I would not forget. I immediately put the date in my iPhone calendar, so that I wouldn’t forget. For months this request sat like a weight on my heart. Seemed like a huge responsibility to deliver a gift from the great beyond.

Time ticked on and the date drew closer. I made Susan’s hat and when May 23rd arrived I walked across the street and knocked on Susan’s door. When Susan came out, I said, Happy Birthday. This is from Brian.

Her reaction was pretty much what you would expect. She loved the hat, held back tears and we talked about Brian and gardens and dogs and bees… After a while she said, Anna, I have a confession. Today is not my birthday…..I said, what do you mean? I wrote it down right away. Did I mess up the date? She said, no, Brian could never remember my birthday. Today is his sister’s birthday. Mine is next week. We both cracked up and praised Brian for being consistent even in death. What a beautiful man, maybe not one for dates, but he had a heart of gold.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: als, Anna shoub, garden hat, lunenburg, nova scotia, organ donation, straw hats, summer hats, Sun Hat, the hat junkie

Hats for sunny days.

July 9, 2019 by HatJunkie

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 VoilĂ ! 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

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Anna shoub, Canadian fashion, canadian hats, Gardening Hat, Gaspereau Valley Fibres, handmade hats, knitting, lunenburg, Made in Nova Scotia, Mens Hat, millinery, nova scotia, Shetland Wool, straw hats, Sun Hat, Sun Protection, the hat junkie, vintage style hats

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