Yesterday I put my helmet hat in the washer with very hot water and felted it slightly to make it fit a little more snug. I knew it wasn't going to felt evenly because I had used 3 different types of wool and I was right. The top (cream color) didn't felt as fast as the other 2 wools, the red felted the most unfortunately because its very lightly spun wool. The green did as predicted, its Brown Sheep wool and a great felter. So---in the end, I didn't make it through even 1 wash cycle before I had to get it out and stretch the red to fit my head. What to do....the cream was still too loose and big. Suddenly I had a brainstorm. I got out my Clover needle felting tool, put the hat on the hat dryer I have (which is a styrofoam ball) and felted it with the tool. Then I put the hat on my head and stretched the still-damp red wool. Now the hat fits like a dream. Its great. If you look at the first pictures (previous post) and these pictures, I hope you can see how smooth the top now is. Yaaaay for the Clover tool, it didn't take long at all to felt that cream down with it.
I also did a crab stitch crochet all the way around the outer edge of the hat with the green yarn and that helped shape the back edge where I actually stretched it some wearing it wet--and wanted it to fit a bit snugger there. And of course I braided 2 ties on the front. I really love this hat, too bad its going up to the 30's today and won't be cold enough to test the hat in windy 20 degree weather (and I'm complaining?)
Next? I'm going to go back and tackle the lined slippers on the LK 150.
