Monday, January 31, 2011

Day 12, Hat 12.... Fashion aware cat to the rescue.

Hello Everyone. Today I felted a baby hat. It is larger than most of the baby hats I have made in the past, and since I have no baby to model for me on immediate demand I enlisted my precious cat. I have to say I was pretty amazed that my cat actually left the hat on long enough for me to take a picture of her in it. You can see that she is trying to figure out how to get the hat off her head...
I think this turned out rather delightful... I can see it on either a baby girl or a baby boy, or a fashion aware critter..... or even an American Girls doll or a doll of that size. What do you think??

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day 11, Hat 11... or the hat fashion show

Ok Everyone!!! This is today's hat.... I decided to try to be a little more daring today with my color choices. As you have noticed I have mostly been sticking with solid colors... I was tempted today by a very fine red and a very fine purple skein I had sitting in my stash. I don't believe that I am going to add anything to this one. I think it has a flare without adding any bells and whistles. What do you think of the colors??
A view of the hat from behind.
Here are a parade of hats from days past with their new buttons and or beads on them. To see a picture larger just click on the picture.
I was looking through interesting extras and I came across a piece of random ribbon... it went straight on this hat with a button that you will recognize from a earlier post. This button is ceramic. I bought it at Bakers fabrics in my town... it is made in south Africa. I have been waiting to use these buttons on a hat and this one just called out to me.
I added a simple layer of class-type peals to this hat.
I think this one really came off looking like a cloche, probably more so than any of my hats up to this point. I got a little daring adding the white band to it, but I think it turned out ok..
Tomorrow is day 12. Can you believe it??? You have been following my hat making for 11 days already. Which color for tomorrow??? hmmm... haven't decided. Morning inspiration will determine. Check back tomorrow. All of the hats on this post are for sale.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Day 9 hat 9 and Ten or " Black and Blue"

Hello~~~ Today I had a visit from a friend who showed me how to use needles to knit. I have always used looms to knit. I did not get very far with the needles today but I know how to use them now to make a hat. I can see that there is no way that I will ever be as fast on the needle as I am on the loom, but I can see that there are a lot more posibilities with the needles... so I am sure I will explore this at some time.
This is proof......... see even a old gal can learn new skills.
The blue.........
The black.............
I have embelished this hat from a few days ago. This is one of the new buttons I bought.
This is a picture I really should have taken during the day. I have used a very pretty purple high end lace on it and the real colors in the hat do not show up. I am feeling encouraged that I have been able to finish the hats with the buttons, etc... On Sunday I am going to work on adding the extras to the White hat and the Gray hat from yesterday.. Sunday will be another color of Red!!! I am still waiting for the new wool order to arrive sometime next week. I will post a picture of the new colors... be on the look out. I am still working on getting something put together so that I can show you how I make the hats. Because I made 2 hats today I didnt have the extra time to do this.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Day 8 hat 8

Hello Everyone!!! This is hat 8, it is only partially felted. It is 11 at night and I need to go to sleep. It is only temporarily blah. The hats from the days before are starting to take on their full character now. I have been adding detailing to them so that I can post them later on in the project as finished pieces. So you can see by looking at this that it still looks like it does when it is in its knitted state. I knitted this hat very loosely, so it has come together quite a bit. It is made from Icelandic wool, and it felts differently than the Peruvian wool that I have been using up to this point. I have been having to put these hats made with the Icelandic wool through more than one cycle to felt them.

These are the buttons that I went scavenging for the other day. What do you think. Do you know how hard it is to find metal buttons. I was surprised at how hard it is to find them. There is local store in town called bakers and they carry the best collection I have been able to find. They are also of a more exotic variety. Pewter buttons from Norway, glass buttons from South Africa, etc..
This is going in the mail tomorrow, it is for my Aunt... I made it previously to this project.. but I just added its button on.
Ahhhh and the red hat... the red hat finally has its bling and its home.... Good -bye beautiful red hat.

Ok... so tomorrow is dedicated to making two hats because just as last week, I take saturdays off from knitting. I will try to start compiling a series that I can put up here so that you can see what I do in order to make one of these hats. I hope you are enjoying this project as much as i am. I also hope that if you are one of the to- be hat owners that you enjoy the hats as much I have have enjoyed putting my time into them. Ciao for tonight.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Day 7 hat 7

Here are some of the ideas I have for how to embellish a few of the hats from previous days...
This is hat 7. It is a brown/ grey with white flecks in it. I also bought a bunch of interesting buttons today, so later this week I will be posting some of the hats with their final embelishments. I have been asked very frequently how I make these hats and what the process is. I will try to get something up for fridays post so you can see the whole process I go through.
night!!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Day 6 Hat 6

Hello everyone. This is hat 6, it is a White Cloche. This one is for sale. I am taking suggestions for what color band... type of button to add to it. At some point here I will photograph the hats I have been making with their "bling" added to them. It has been suggested that I make a video so I can show you how I make the hats... I am going to work on putting one up here on the blog for you to see! Tomorrow is going to be a gray hat.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Day five hat 4 and 5

This is a green mens hat. I used a long mixing bowl as a makeshift hat mold. This has given me the opportunity to make a larger hat. I will soon invest in or make my own molds but thats a whole other project..... This is my husband who is wearing it.


This is a red Cloche I made today. I used the same bowl to make this one. You can see that it is a little big on me, because it is being made for someone with a larger head. I am thinking of adding a celtic button to this one, with no band. I think it has enough shape as it is and is interesting enough without a lot of bling. What do you think?? This one is a order I am fulfilling. You will see several hats that were ordered hats on here over the next few days. I will label them as ones that have already been sold so that this is not confusing. This is hat 4 and 5. This is to make up for yesterdays mess !!! g-night!!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Day 4 hat 4



grrrrrrr. Has your washing machine ever eaten your socks before... has it ever thrown something around so hard that it fell apart... i have made so many hats and have never had this happen, but today the pink hat fell apart when it was felting. Felting is a non-reversable state so there is no way that I can go back and fix it. I can however make it into something else. I will be putting in a wool order tomorrow, so I will order some more pink wool to make another pink hat later in the 20 day challenge. I was very much looking forward to this hat.As you can see from the picture I knitted and felted a band to go around the hat base. I can still use that. Better felting tomorrow!! I need to make an extra hat to make up for this mess-up. Monday is going be busy!!!!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Day 2 hat 2 from yesterday...


Remember the hat from yesterday? I thought you might find it interesting to see what it looks like felted vs knitted. Here is its felted form. This is a larger hat, it would fit a person with a medium size head. I have not chosen embellishments for it yet. Any suggestions?

Day two Hat number 3



I knitted a purple hat today... I really like working with this wool. This is a much tighter weave hat, very soft but not heavy or tight on the head. I think it would fit a medium size woman's head. So far I have mostly made women's hats but I will also be knitting hats for children and men, so be on the lookout for those.
The purple hat is made of wool that comes from Peru, and it is very very soft. It isn't alpaca, but it feels soft like it.
I am taking Saturday off but you will see me back at full steam on Sunday.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Day one Hat Challenge Hat two


Ok... so here is the second hat. It was knitted this afternoon. My in-laws arrived for a visit this evening and I was not able to felt it due to the fact that they are sleeping in the room that has the washing machine. This is what a completed hat looks like before it is felted down and placed on the hat forming mold. It will be felted in the morning and it will be posted on here when the extras are added to it as well. Have two friends that have suggested colors for hats, purple and pink. I will make sure to make hats that are purple and pink during my 20 day challenge so look for them!!

Day one Hat Challenge Hat one!!!


Hello everyone!!! Today I got up this morning and i knitted and felted hat number one which is a green hat. It is going to have its finishing touches put on it tomorrow morning. I have picked a celtic button for it, and I am knitting and felting a outer rim for it as well. Here is the felted hat without its extras. I will be posting a picture of the completely finished hat in the morning so look for it then.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

20 Hats in 20 days starts tomorrow

Those of you who are on my mailing list will be getting a postcard in the mail!! The project officially starts tomorrow! Looking forward to getting some feedback. I will try to some video as well as pictures.

Monday, January 17, 2011

20 Hats in 20 days project


20 Hats in 20 days!!!!

I hope you will join me for my 20 hats in 20 day challenge!!! The challenge will begin on January 20th so start haunting my blog at this time to get the latest updates. I will post a picture of at least one hat every day. Every hat that I post will be for sale. Any other items I post will also be for sale. If you have any suggestions please leave me a comment. If you have a specific color of hat that you personally would like to have made for you, this can be done, just contact me and I can make one for you personally.
-Cherie