Felting – More Hats!

Yesterday I took a felted hat workshop with Chris Hall of Cake~Tin Hats and once again I learned so much from another master. The workshop took place at a fave haunt of mine in Picton ON…Rosehaven Yarn Shop.
My first foray in to felting a hat was using the directions in Uniquely Felt by Christie White…the ‘bible’ Andrea Graham made me buy when I took my first ever class with her years ago. My friend Sonja Fijn and I spent the afternoon in my studio with lots of roving, soap and water, putting plastic bags on our heads to fit and came through with two ace hats!
 http://barnett-knits.com/a-day-in-the-life/

Chris first showed us choosing, weighing and laying out our roving…I chose the green for the outside of my hat and lavender for the lining. I’ve done this before but I intended to do better this time.

We watched her lay out her roving…lots of instruction, hints and tips and showing us what was important at that step of the hat.

Here’s the template I used.  I kinda wanted to do a cloche shape with a small brim.

 Here I’ve laid out my first side and put some bits of silk roving for embellishment. At home I might do shapes of felt…dots, squares, spirals and so on.

Sonja used lots of silk…and three different colours.

I snuck in a pic of Sonja shaping her hat on a wooden hat form. This is after hour of rubbing, patting, wetting and rolling…and lots of fun chatter. It’s hard to count when you are telling or listening to a story but somehow we managed!

My finished hat!