A post from the Past: May 27, 2008 - First felted Hat

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009

May 27, 2008  First Felted Hat

I am very new to knitting. I began at the end of March 2008. I jumped into "Wool" with a hat I made. It was not knitted, it was crocheted.
I wanted to see if I could tackle felting. So I stuck to crocheting since I have been doing that since I was about 7 years old. I crocheted this hat our of Paton's wool.




I crocheted it larger than I wanted the finished product. Here is it before felting on my 6yr. old granddaughters head.





Then I washed it in the machine on hot inside of a pillow case. I then let it dry stretched over a glass container since I didn't have any other form to put it on.





When it was dry this is how it looked.





I liked it a lot. My daughter in law Anne loved it so now I am crocheting her one too.







I'm going to make it bigger than my first hat since I think my hat is too tight. I don't look good in hats but I am going to try to get over it since I plan to knit a bunch of them and I want to felt more hats.
My granddaughter Peanut asked for a hat so she is next on the list.

The yarn in both hats is Patons Classic Wool- merino, 100% wool
The red/mix color stripe on the second hat is recycled silk from Nepal.
It is handspun by women's cooperatives from silk weaving mill waste.
It is very soft and has bright vibrant colors. I will put more stripes in the hat and I know it does not shrink so it will stand out. Should be interesting when I am done.

A post from the Past: June 20, 2008

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 20, 2008       Felted hat before felting.







The blue/green wool and the red silk yarn are only for stripes so I didn’t use very much. 
I am making up the pattern as I go. When I feel like it needs an increase I just crochet 2 sc in one space. Then to get the hat to turn down at the crown I decrease by skipping a space. I just do this when it seems it needs to be shaped here or there.
5/26 
I start crocheting from the top down and increase as needed to make a hat shape. I crochet the hat larger than normal since I will be felting it.
6/20 
I had not been working on this much. I was finishing my other projects. 
So today I finished the crocheting. I added a few inches of blue to the bottom which I crocheted the first row in the back loop so it would turn easy. Then I turned the blue strip to the inside and sewed it down with the gray yarn. It makes a nice edge. 
I still need to felt this project then it is done! 
I love how the colors look on this hat. The picture of the hat on my granddaughter is closer to the real colors.

A post from the Past: June 23, 2008

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 23, 2008  Felted Hat



I made this hat for my daughter in law for her birthday. (along with 2 pairs of wool socks). It's funny to give her wool clothing when her birthday is July 1st. But she will need them later in the year.

I also made these earrings



I know, the earrings don't match. That is the beauty of them LOL. There are 2 beads on one and 1 bead on the other that is larger than the 2 beads. The beads are black onyx & opal. I had lost one earring and when I ordered more beads they came smaller. So I just put 2 on. The Dragon Fly is sterling silver and the other findings are sterling as well. There are 2 swarovski crystals.




So my felting process is to wash the crocheted hat in the washing machine. I put the oversized crocheted hat in a pillowcase to catch all the lint that will come off. I wash on a long cycle, on the hottest temperature I have. This hat I washed 3 times. The first 2 times it didn't shrink to my liking. I want it to shrink so that I can't see the stitches. So on the 3rd washing I took it out of the pillowcase and let it be free with the other laundry in the machine. It came out perfect. Then I stretched it over my glass jar that I use for a form and let it dry. (see May27th post on the jar).

So this hat doesn't have the flare out like the first one but I like it. 
The gray yarn and the blue yarn are 100% wool. The multi colored yarn is recycled sari silk.