So, I’m making a summer hat (Fun!) using some regular (well extra pretty, but other than that regular) ribbon-type raffia. Which of course I verified that it could be washed before buying.

The hat is starting to take shape, and I love the ribbon I’ve been working with. But I decided I’d like to do some of the side rounds in a twisted (rope-ish) raffia.

Anyway, only after I bought what I thought would be good string, did I notice the label says “Do not wash.”

Facepalm.

Also… unacceptable. It’s a real hat that I’m really gonna wear in the real outdoors. It’s gonna get wet. And maybe dirty.

So, being me, I decided to wash some. That first little bit I tried seemed absolutely fine. So I decided to prewash enough to actually use. I did some random crochet so I could wash it without getting it all tangled (smart, right?) Which made me realize that I’m never going to crochet anything real with this stuff unwashed. It’s so stiff and rough it made my stabilizing finger sore just working up this small and very loose sample.

But don’t worry, folks, it’s OK. The part I washed and dried felt reasonably soft and OK to work with. But it also turned out to be thicker than I realized. Luckily (or maybe not so luckily?), I found out after washing that it was actually 2-stranded, which I could see because the strands separated a tiny bit at each end. So (still being me), I decided I would just separate the strands. Which did work, but turned out to be even more of a pain than separating strands of regular yarn.

After all that, it’s working reasonably well no. Not ideal, but it is shaping up pretty nicely. I’ll want to do some more shaping, and I don’t know yet what I’ll do with the brim when I make it. But I like the effect of changing colors for the part of it that has more open stitches.

Having said that, I’m never ever going to buy LionBrand LoveCraft paper, ever again.

Also, I should mention that the inspiration, as well as helpful suggestions for this hat, came from a pattern that is lovely and I actually found it to be worth buying:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/isabella-hat-8