Every once and a while, I come across something really cool, and I feel the need to share it. About a week and a half ago, though Jennifer, of the Magpie Knitter, I met Trisha Paetsch. She was looking for someone to review her pattern. As someone who always loves to see what other designers are doing I was interested in taking a look at the pattern. And then, I found out that the pattern was about hats.
Seriously. I love hats. (Michael, my fiance, and I have a huge collection of hats. Standard rule in our household… you play a boardgame, you wear a hat. We can have more than 25 people over to play games with us, and not run out of hats. We love hats.)
So I was a little biased going into the pattern, because I really love hats. But I will also say that because I love hats, I’m rather picky about my hats. I want them to have nice shaping. I want them to be finished well. I want them to be stylish and functional. I became a little worried after I got the pattern from Trisha. What if her patterns didn’t match up with my expectations?
Let me break the suspense here, Trisha delivers a solid set of hat patterns in Grande Prairie Hats. The pattern is constructed as a narrative of several lovely ladies going out and getting photographed in their hats. And what hats they have! There’s a little something for everyone. Now, while I will admit, not all the hats are to my taste. I’m not too fond of the wide headbands that are featured (Bregdan and Leanne). They’re lovely, the color choice is great, and they’re definitely something say, my sister or mother would wear, but I like something that covers my head. However, the details and the color choices and both are lovely.
And that’s fine, because she also has some lovely traditional(ish) style hats, like Frippery or Frivolity. Much more my type of thing. Trisha also includes a few types of beanies to round the number of patterns out. There’s also a really cute, solid mitten pattern that you get in the ebook.
The only drawback is the document is rather large if you want to print it off in it’s entirety. It’s 35 pages, and parts of it are rather picture heavy. That isn’t necessarily a drawback because I can select which pages I want to print out, but as someone who (aims, but admittedly doesn’t always achieve to have) prefers a a few carefully chosen pictures instead of a bunch, it wasn’t necessarily my thing. But if you are the type of person who likes to see a project you are doing from every single angle, Tracy definitely delivers.
One of the parts I like the most about the ebook is actually all the finishing details Tracy includes. Part of the reason I like her hats so much (especially Frippery and Frivolity) is because of the details used to finish the hats with feathers and other little bits and bobs. Tracy walks you through finishing your own hat, and the details and decisions you make in regards to that.
Overall, I would say Tracy’s Grande Prairie Hats is a very solid new release, and I would encourage you to go purchase the book, or the individual patterns. I think you’ll get your money’s worth.
