At the weekend I went on a felting course, run by a local couple who teach bushcraft and outdoor skills. It was really good fun, vegan lunch and cake was provided and a lovely time was had by all. We started with a big pile of sheep fleeces and after adding lots of water, soap and elbow grease, ended up with a hat each. As you can see my hat is a little redonkulous, I am however a fan of redonkulous head wear, and it's quite possible you will find me with this on my head, in public, at some point. Slightly too warm for that at the moment though, so for now I've bopped the tip of it in and turned it upside down to form a fabric bowl to hold my crocheting supplies!
Well done - the hat looks great!
ReplyDeleteKay :)
Thanks Kay! :D
ReplyDeleteI like it and it has dual purpose.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shaheen, I kpet telling them at the workshop I was making a multi-functional-felt-thing (I may also use it as a tea cosy!) but they didn't really understand!
ReplyDeleteThis is grand! How did you make it... why soap? Sorry I'm a greeny when it comes to things like this. Awesomely cute though... ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, I think it's grand too! Although it still smells a bit sheepy. We were taught a technique called wet felting, you start off with a sheeps fleece, kind of pull it into bits so it's all fluffy, then lay it out in several layers on a plastic template, put water and soap on it, then cover it over with some netting (like net curtains) and rub it (the water makes the fibres in the wool bind tightly together, the soap breaks down the lanolin in the wool and rubbing with the net makes friction which encourages the hairs in the wool to lock together and felt) that takes about 2 hours! I got really lovely smooth hands from rubbing a piece of net for so long! Then we rolled the hats and dipped them in hot water and rolled them again to shrink them to the correct size, it took a very long time, but it was interesting to learn how to do a technique that's been used for 100s of years to make fabric!
ReplyDeleteFetching creation!
ReplyDeleteHee hee, thanks Joddle!
ReplyDeleteStumbled on your blog via the Yes & Yes forum and this post gave me a good laugh. Thanks! Everyone needs at least one crazy hat! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to have given you a good giggle Jezli! I actaully have more than one silly hat, but this is the only one I made myself! :)
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