Bigglety Bouclé Beanie

I'm back from Eastern Oregon and have wonderful photos to share with you, but I'm off to my day job this morning and can only put up a quick post. Two and a half scarves got knit on the trip and lots of fabulous scenery was seen.

The two finished scarves are blocked and drying. Meanwhile, here's the finished bigglety bouclé beanie modeled by my lovely assistant, Valerie.

Beginning the Bouclé Beanie

In the last post you saw the sketch of my idea for a beanie with a bouclé brim, and you read about my confessed insanity of creating the crocheted bouclé yarn by hand.

Here's the hat progress so far. This is the crown of the hat before felting, modeled by the lovely Valerie:


After vigorous felting and much dye loss out of this commercial yarn by Malabrigo, the crown looked like this as it dried on the hat block:


After it the crown had dried (and stained the heck out of my lovely hat block) it looked like this on Valerie:


Now I need to do some swatching to decide if I want to crochet or knit the brim and in which stitch pattern.

Finished Hats - I Wish I Felt Better

Absent blogger I've been, but my excuse is a little bit of a bug and the usual trying to do too much at once while accomplishing far less.

What in the heck have I been doing besides ignoring my blog readers this past week? Well, there have been things finished and photographed. While I was going on and on about "Working in Circles" last month (that should be the name of my theme song), there was actually work getting done and I can prove it!

Lets start with hats.

First up is a fun purple number that got started last year and was finally finished. Alas it is not going in the store because it didn't meet my quality control standards.

This is an ongoing problem with felting. It's so unpredictable. Some days the felting of a hat seems to take forever. On other days, the same darn yarn, knit in the same darn cloche pattern, will felt up before you can say "Yikes!" And then sometimes there is the problem with the hat becoming too small before all the stitch definition gets felted out.

That what happened with this purple hat. You can still easily see the stitch decreasing in the crown shaping but any more felting would have reduced the hat to a size impossible to wear. So this cute but imperfect hat is destined to become a giveaway or something I'll wear myself.

This black hat felted up nicely and I got smart with it by making the flower ornament a removable brooch. That way you can play with the look of the hat by attaching something else. The problem with this hat, which will go in the store, is that it is so hard to photograph black things. There must be a trick with the lighting. If you know what it is, please leave me a comment.

White yarn is supposed to be very difficult to felt. That wasn't the case with this winter white fiber, although the hat did become smaller in the felting process than was planned.

The idea of this hat, which was inspired by Aretha's wonderful hat that she wore to the inauguration, was ceremony.

This is a wedding chapeau with a bow embellished with freshwater pearls. The hat itself is a marriage between a beanie and a cloche. It will have to be a petite bride who wears it because it definitely is a size small.

This split-pea soup colored hat is for me to wear. It is an experiment inspired by Leigh Radford who was at a recent Tigard Knitting Guild meeting with all the samples from her recent book, AlterKnits Felt. This is a wonderful book if you're fascinated by felting, and I highly recommend it. Leigh has done a lot of experimenting and exploring of the felt wilderness, and she shares her findings freely. The projects in the book are artistic and varied in scope.

Leigh was wearing one of the patterns from the book called "Pleated Cloche", and it was totally cool even though I wouldn't call her hat a cloche. The term cloche to me means to be in the shape of a bell which is what the word means in French. Leigh's hat is more of a pleated beanie or cap. Nevertheless it is a very cool design that involves the fun idea of folding or creasing the felt hat while it is still wet.

So I took my cloche pattern, changed the bell-shaped brim to allow for fullness in the front but not as much as usual in the back with some short row shaping, and added a couple of extra unfelted inches in the knitting of the crown so that there would be something to work with. It was a fun experiment that surely will get tried again.

To me a hat needs to look good in all directions before it is acceptable. Both the wedding hat and my folded hat ended up with nice silhouettes in all directions. For an end to today's post, I'll leave you with a backward glance at them. Next post will have some finished scarves.

Working in Circles - Part 4, Felt

so many dots LARGE table runner by Kthurm

So Many Felt Circles

A leisurely browse through some Etsy treasuries and shops led me to discover that felt circles can be very interesting and also very practical. The first discovery was this captivating felted centerpiece by Etsy seller Kthurm who makes some beautiful felted table runners and centerpieces that you can see by following the photo link into her Etsy store.

The wonderful color variety in this piece is what initially captured my attention. Then I became captivated by the organic feeling and the sense of movement. It seems like those circle cells are in motion. They may be participating in some special choreographed dance or random exercise. They may be multiplying and increasing in number. Some of them are trying to run off the very edge of the centerpiece.

After the dazzling centerpiece, the next discovery was penny rugs. I had never heard of them, so I Googled and found a good description, along with some history, in this article.

Wool Penny Rug Kit by ragamuffin2006

In the olden days you had to painstakingly cut out all your own circles from your scraps of wool that you had saved for years--leftovers from all those clothes you had made by hand or sewn on your treadle sewing machine.

Today you can buy this kit and all the circle cutting has already been done for you! Doesn't that sound like an engaging winter project! For other kits and supplies, follow the link under the photo to the ragamuffin2006 shop.

The penny rug is not just for walking on--it is also a work of art. You don't have to put it on the floor. You could put it on the wall. Take this next piece, for example, by Etsy artist, baumcat.

Penny Rug Circle Art by baumcat

This work of art, as the artist describes it herself, is very tribal in appearance. To me it has a magical, healing quality and seems to promise the rediscovery of some long forgotten abilities. The artist says in her description that this piece was inspired by Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs for blessings and peace.

Single Circles

I don't know about you, but I am getting more and more inspired by circle work. You don't have to go full out with the myriad circle approach if that feels overwhelming. You can make a simpler felt circle project.

Last year I made some super hot pads for the kitchen by felting some berets that had gone bad. I just took off the rolled brim band and threw the crown of the beret in the washer and dryer a few times. You could also felt up some recycled sweaters and cut them into circles for coasters or hotpads.

Here is a fancier application using just two single circles--Etsy seller, MountainMist, made these two pincushions out of two felt circles and then added some decorative embroidery and wool stuffing. These are both currently for sale in her shop if you follow the links.

Red Strutting Bird Pincushion by MountainMist

This little bird is so cheerful and cute that I think I'd feel guilty using him for a pincushion. I would add a little ribbon loop, and turn him into a cheerful ornament. Then I would hang him up high so that sweet kitty Samba, who loves red things, and loves birds even more, wouldn't go after him.

Wool Pincushion with Starburst Embroidery by MountainMist

This second pincushion is also made out of recycled wool. This one has been embroidered with some of MountainMist's hand-spun mohair in a yummy creamy white.

Another great idea for a felt circle is to make a brooch. Just look at this lovely photo of a felt brooch that was made by chimaerashop. The photo has it all--a pretty felt brooch with a spiral design in hand embrodiery, laying on a bed of lovely knitting.

"Little Ms Sunshine" by chimaerashop

Wow! so many fun things can be done with felt circles. Thanks to all of you great Etsy artists for letting me share your work! Readers, think of supporting these artists by buying handmade.

Next, think of fun things that you could make out of a felted circle:

• earrings
• a brooch
• a coaster
• a placemat
• a centerpiece
• a rug
• wall art
• components for jewelry
• game pieces
• a badge

Stretch your thinking some more--What else could you make? Leave some brainstorming ideas for felt circles in the comments!