What I {Brought To Life} Today

There was a vision.

It was unexpected and brilliant.

It was a vision of a new kind of hat.  

A hat for any baby.  

Regardless of gender. (But preferably for boys cause I don't make enough stuff for boys)

A vision that brings us back to our roots.

Our pre-historic roots.

It was...

THE DINOSAUR!!!

So Michelle's friend, Amy, was like, "Rachel should make a mohawk hat!"

Then Michelle was like, "Ooh or a dinosaur hat!"

So she came to me and was like, "You should make a dinosaur hat."

And I was like, "Good idea!"

And she was like, "Get on it!"

And I was like, "Ok."

That's pretty much verbatim...

Today I brought that vision to life.

Several of you have asked me about needle felting and it's really hard to explain so I tried to take some pictures of the process today.

So I start off with some yarn

Can you spy the Chu???

And a crochet hook

Several stitches later...

Then I grab some wool roving

Color match!

Next I grab my felting needle

The fact that it's pink was just a bonus

If you look really close you can kinda see the barbed-ness of the needle.  That's what makes it "felt" the fibers together

I grab a wad of roving and plop it on my foam pad

Then you basically just stab it with the needle

several jabs later

There's this

Too thin! Need more roving!

Action shot

Layer it on top of what I have and start the jabbing again.

One handed crafting is hard

In addition to jabbing, you have to flip.  If you don't flip you will have a lovely piece of felt appliqued to a styrofoam block. Jab, jab, jab.  Flip, flip flip.

Now the shape is coming together.  But its a little too wild.  At this point I take it in my hands and rub them together. The friction smooths everything out.  I couldn't photograph that part.  Trust me I tried.

repeat, repeat, repeat

The babeh was napping at this point and I needed a model for placement. So I grabbed the next best thing.

Perfect!

Place the felting 

I should get real pins

 

excellent!

Remove from the model and jab, jab, jab

It's working

Ta daaa! Too bad the babeh was napping...

Just kidding! I wouldn't dare deny you the vision of Mia in this hat!

I think she likes it.

Oh man

 

Yup.  I'm gonna have to make more of these.

I've got to start making more boy friendly things. Any ideas???

Post Script: Mia got the model I used for Valentine's Day from her Mimi.  Here it is in action...

I'm not sure what they talk about but it seems pretty intimate.