Crocheted, Felted, Trimmed, Woven...

My second felted hat... sort of! It began with beautiful colours from my eye-candy yarn bowl.

It was another just-go-for-it project but I wasn't so lucky this time... only half of the yarns felted! The hat did not shrink in height at all! The rim that I crocheted turned into an hideous ruffle! After the feeling of defeat and frustration subsided, I decided not to toss it but to try to come up with a solution.

I decided to just cut it to the right height at one of the felted parts since I knew that it wouldn't unravel here. The parts that didn't felt were thin and left large holes which left my head cold so I decided to weave in extra yarn.

I am super happy with the results and like it even more because of all the different textures!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Felted Hats & Snow Boots

In my last post I talked about my adventures in making my first felted hat. Well, here it is finally finished with my first Button Flower pin. I ironed the fabric to the felt with fusible webbing and then cut out the shape. I really like how it turned out. I mentioned in my last post how I prefered the hat BEFORE felting but I have totally changed my mind! I have been wearing it outside every day and have fallen in love with it! It is very warm and keeps my ears nice and toasty... I also get lots of compliments :o)

It has been snowing again for a full 24 hours! Craziness in Vancouver where no one is ever prepared for SNOW! Today we braved the snow to search for much-needed winter boots. We were luckier than most because our Honda CRV has four wheel drive however we still managed to slide a few times turning corners. We didn't get stuck and wore our new boots safely home.

Todays roads were bad and I'm certain the highways are worse. I don't think we will be driving the 8-9 hour trip to my parents' for Christmas this year...

I really like how the colours in my hat are the same as in the snow photos!

I made these tomatoes last week to add to Claire's Grocery basket... I'm afraid that she may only get one carrot and two tomatoes for Christmas because all this snow is making me want to crochet and felt more warm hats! These beautiful colours were calling out to me from my yarn bowl!

However she will be getting this ball that she asked me to make for her. She even chose the fabrics all by herself... not bad for a 4 year old! :o)

Have a safe & happy Christmas!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Adventures in Felting

I have wanted to try felting for some time. I've been inspired by the magic of felted bowls, bags and hats on Flickr. When it snowed the other day, I realized that I do not have a warm winter hat so immediately started planning my first felting project. I was scared about the shrinkage especially since I was using two different yarns! I used Bernat felting wool for the main part which said it would shrink to 80% in width and 95% in height. I tend to be one who just uses my eye for things instead of following patterns so I just decided to go for it... without making test swatches! I knew if it shrunk too much then I could just turn it into a bowl!

I put it in a lingerie bag and threw it in the washing machine with a towel on the longest hot water cycle. It was still too big when it came out so I threw it in again... it came out a bit tight the second time but I managed to stretch it out slightly so that it would fit. It's a good thing I have a small head!

As you can see from the photo it shrunk much more than 5% in height! Thank goodness I added an extra stripe! For the most part I am happy with the way it turned out. The grey wool that I used for the stripes did not felt as well as expected but i like the texture. The felting wool lost its intensity. Overall I think I prefered the non-felted look and feel of the yarn.

It was an exciting project and reminded me of my pottery days because of the suspense and magic of chance! I think all my hat needs now is a fabric button flower :o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)