You wash your precious knitted or crocheted hat, lay it flat to dry, and end up with unsightly folds that show even when it's on your head. What to do? Time to visit the Dollar Store and get yourself a bag of round balloons!

I'm going to demonstrate how I block lace or cabled hats. You will need one round balloon, a flexible measuring tape, and the head circumference size for whom the hat is intended.

Wash your hat with a fine yarn soap like Soak or Eucalan. Click here for great information on washing your knitted or crocheted garments. If the yarn dye bleeds into the water, click here for my previous blog post on using Dr. Beckmann's Colour & Dirt Collector sheets.

Blow up a balloon slightly, and fit the wet hat over the balloon. Blow it up a little more, then wrap a flexible measuring tape around the edge to measure the circumference (while still holding the balloon end - do not tie yet!).

You want the finished size of the hat to be approximately 2" less than the actual head size to allow for a good fit. A friend or family member might be useful to help, although I do this on my own.

Tie the end when you have enlarged the balloon to the desired size. Allow to fully dry.

Cut the end of the balloon to deflate and remove it. The hat will be blocked perfectly!

The pattern is the Bloom Hat by Irina Dmitrieva. Click here for a link to my Ravelry notes. I've knitted this hat a few times now and it's one of my faves.

I created these Number Knit Stitch Markers especially for knitting lace and cables. They work beautifully by placing them between each pattern repeat, to keep track of the stitches and catch errors quickly. And trust me, I know ALL about knitting errors ;)

Thanks for visiting my blog!