Beacon Street Cloche
I wanted to make myself a felt hat that would match my black wool coat. It needed to be crocheted, since I didn't know how to knit at the time, and it should be warm enough for walking to work in a Boston winter. This hat is all of that, plus the brim is wide enough to keep the rain off my glasses. I have made many versions of this hat as gifts, and it is always well-received. The beauty of it is that you can shrink it to any head size.
Crocheted fabric can make beautiful felt. The problem with fulling crocheted pieces, though, is that the fabric doesn't shrink symmetrically. That made designing this felted cloche something of a challenge, overcome only by trial, error and much cursing. The misshapen remnants of my hat experiments litter my apartment.
But the finished pattern is well worth it. This hat works up in only one ball of Paton's Classic Wool Merino, making it very cost effective. Other feltable yarns work well, also. For a wonderfully fuzzy version of this hat, try Lamb's Pride worsted-weight wool.