First Knit Felted Hat

I tried my first felted hat and blocked it using the hat block I got from www.hatshapers.com, using the round crown slant block. The pattern is by Fibertrends (their first pattern for hats, AC-1), and the wool is by Kraemer yarns, "Mauch Chunky. Size 11 needles, it knit up in about 4 hours, took about 45 minutes from start to finish to felt it, and then 2 days to dry on the block. Although it has a good shape, it is not stiff.

The cool thing about the design is that you cast on stitches, then increase for the brim. The fact that fewer are cast on than are knit in the brim automatically curls the edge up. No blocking needed. The cost of the hat (other than the time) was about $9USD. (The hat shaper with shipping was about $40USD -- but I'll get lots more use out of it.)