Which STIFFNER Would You Use?

Hi Dee Dee!

I love to crochet Easter baskets and I have the same problem. I tried with potato starch, with very bad results. I needed a lot of it, it was QUITE disgusting and, if I remember correct, it made my work change color. Many people use sugar, but I don't like it, I used to live in house with ants problems, so not a option. I used clothes starch once, I needed tonzs of it and the results were so and so... The best I found until now is to use glue, the kind children use for school works. The glue is white and fluid, I can't remember how it's called in English speaking countries, sorry (Vinavil is the commercial name in Italian, if it can be of any help). You dilute the glue with a little bit of water and dip your precious work in it for some minutes. Then you dry the basket on the bottom of a capsized cup or something like that, giving the basket the wanted shape. Another way is to use the so called "fish glue", the kind used for cooking. My mother used it for her works back in the sixties and the results were very good.

Good luck!

Anna Maria

In message , Dee Dee writes

I have used the liquid starch, using equal parts of starch to water. Also used the white PVA glue diluted with water. Shirley

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Thanks! I bet glue is how to make brims for knit "baseball caps" too! (My Dad wants a warm knit cap with a brim to keep snow out of his eyes.) Nothing I had tried, worked.

Hi Anna,

Thanks a bunch ... ok, so that's 'Tacky Glue' here ... I just dilluted it with water and it's hanging upside down to dry ... will let you know how it works.

Thanks again! Dee

Yup, same thing Anna suggested ... trying it now. Will let you know how it works.

It's hanging upside down in the shower.

Dee

Aaron,

But what happens if it gets wet?

Dee

Hi Shirley,

How did the liquid starch work?

I'm not sure what PVA glue is ... is that the same as Tacky Glue?

Dee

Liquid starch works fine and does not block the holes in the lace pattern.

PVA all I can say is a child's glue that is white but dries clear. Shirley

In message , Dee Dee writes

Aaron

I've seen baseball cap patterns that require you to get a sheet of plastic canvas, which you cut into the brim shape and crochet or knit to cover both sides. Some have suggested cardboard for stiffening, but if the hat gets wet, that will break down.

I've used plastic canvas in slippers to help stiffen them up, and while it has some give, it works pretty well, and as long as you don't dry it in the dryer, it can be washed.

I also have a Fiber Trends pattern where you knit the hat, brim and all, and felt it, shaping it while it dries. I have yet to try the pattern out myself, but it looks like you could make it without the ear flaps and it would be very close to a baseball cap shape. It's pattern AC-16, which I think is still in print.

HTH.

Leah

Actually I have done the knitted brim thing and I just used a heavy pellon inside a knitted "envelope" bill. It works well and washes well.

The glue once hardened is waterproof, that is why I used it. Ann

" PVA I think is poly vinyl acetate and is like tacky glue, Ann

Thanks, that AC-16 looks like it might be just the ticket.

Long ago, I gave him a knit wool cap with earflaps and a brim that I bought in Nepal. But, last summer he let the moths get to it. I should bite my tongue here, but what I really like are the little Patagonia synthetic pile caps with a brim:> I offered him one.

But, he wants a hand knit wool cap to replace the >

Wow! And, Pellon is on sale at Joanne's this week!. Thanks!

Time to do a couple more prototypes!

Aaron, When I knit those hats, I cut an ice cream container for the brims.

Higs, Katherine

snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net wrote:

Yep, plastic canvas would work. I just got used to using the ice cream container. That is free, too!

Higs, Katherine