I’ve been addicted to the felted wool thing here recently, and Rob loves the felted wool look, so I was experimenting on making him a felted wool hat. Being new to this and all, I’m very unsure of how much bigger than the finished item that a person needs to make things. Here is his hat before felting (He was busy working, so I stuck the hat on him and took a picture — He did at least give me a little smile):
Well, so like I said, this is the first hat that I’ve felted. I wasn’t sure how large I needed to make it. Needless to say, Rob didn’t get a new hat, but Zoe did!! It started out Rob size, and after felting, Zoe has a beautiful felted orange hat. 
She’s gotten to where lately she poses for the camea and says “CHEESE”.
This hat was crocheted with Lions Brand 100% wool yarn. For felting, I put the hat in a small HOT load in the washer with a couple pairs of jeans and washing powder (Tide with Bleach). I ran a normal cycle, then put everything in the dryer on high. I take my felted items out of the dryer as soon as it finishes so they won’t cool and wrinkle.
April 11 2008 | Hats and Yarn and crochet and felted wool and wool | 4 Comments »
I made an attempt at felting recently, and I loved it.
Here is an image of my recent attempt at felting:
The headband did not felt up like I had hoped, though, but I did not give up. I’ve recently discovered that despite my wool allergy, I am able to crochet and wear wool (So maybe the allergy is gone — this I’m not sure??) Anyway… I’ve longed to try felting, but thought I would never be able to. I realize that winter is over, and Spring has Sprung, but I’ve found a NEW LOVE — Felted Wool. I crocheted another wool headband, and gave felting another try. This time, instead of handwashing with hot water, I actually ran a small load in my washer on HOT. I put the headband in the wash with a full cup of detergent.
Here is the headband with flower before felting:
I then put in several pairs of jeans with the headband and let them wash the full cycle. Then, I put them all in the dryer, and to my astonishment, I had actually accomplished felting! I was so excited that I threw the headband that I had attempted to felt earlier in a hot wash with some jeans, and got the same wonderful results. I have plans for a LOT more felting in the near future! YAAY for FELTED WOOL!
Here are both headbands after felting:
Close-ups of the Felted Fabric of the Headbands:
I was surfing through some crochet sites on stumbleupon.com today, and I found some felted tapestry crocheted hats I would love to try. I’m not quite to that point yet, but I am definitely becoming addicted to wool and felt!
April 09 2008 | Yarn and allergy and crochet and dreadband and felted wool and headband and wool | No Comments »
I have neglected crochetcastle.com for a couple of days. I’ve missed it, but sometimes things get busy, and we are unable to keep up. Sunday I had a Psych paper due, plus we had dinner at Rob’s mom’s house. I had hoped I would be able to update, but it just didn’t happen.
My Psychology paper was about Positive Interpersonal Communication. I might have veered a bit off on it, but I ended up writing about social networking as a positive interpersonal communication. I have written several papers about Internet communication, so I thought it was an interesting take on Interpersonal Communication, especially since I am an online student. Through my research, I found several interesting references regarding social networking. I sent them along to Rob, and through reading them, he found something called findasocialnetwork.com. I have searched for some crochet social networks, and did not really find anything interesting regarding crochet through findasocialnetwork.com. I also did a search for Psychology social networks. I found one that might be interesting, but not near as active as I would like. I do believe that niche social networking is the way of the future. I think it is in its beginning stages, though.
A psychology social network would be interesting. I think eventually, places like myspace.com may even offer the ability and service to people and companies to host their own social networks through them. Right now, I have found a social networking sight that anyone can sign up and set up their own social network through. I have not researched this sight that much yet (The reason why I am not posting the link here, yet), but I know that through them, it is not your own site, which is a huge downfall. I do plan on researching them more throughout the next few days. I feel like this type of service will become more common in the near future.
Rob uses a social networking software called phpFox, and we really like using it so far. The administrative aspects seem very self-explanatory, which is a bonus for newbie social network administrators like us. Rob has given me administrative status, but so far that has only entailed designing MassageAlumni.com’s graphic logo.
A special thanks to Tammy for having the right font when I needed it. (Thank you, Tammy!)
Tammy is my dear friend and sis. She probably has every font ever created. She was one of the big reasons I learned to use PSP software several years ago, and she is a very talented graphic artist. It is always great knowing talented graphic artists, especially when they are also your friend and sister (Then they don’t complain when you bug them for a font! :-P)
Speaking of great people to know, today we had a great time having lunch with Ama from PMTC. I have no photos, because I accidentally left my phone in the van… (Boohoo)… We ate Mexican food and talked about nearly everything under the sun. I really enjoyed our lunch together. We plan on getting together to crochet one of these days soon. We may even embark on the task of learning tatting. I guess we’ll see what happens with that! I looked for some tatting videos on uTube. (I love learning things on uTube!)
Oh, we did stop by Big Momma’s Coffee Shop near PMTC on Commercial Street when we dropped Ama back off. I think I’m starting to become immune to espresso. The more I get, the more I NEED!
We stopped by Hobby Lobby for some more wool. I’ve become addicted to felting (Will post more about what I’ve been felting soon!) Now that spring is here, I’m buying wool. That is probably insane, but I always thought I couldn’t crochet with wool due to allergies. I also thought wool was itchy, but wool is SOooOoOoOOoOoo soft. I don’t know how I ever dealt with acrylic! (More on acrylic yarns probably soon…)
DD #3 napped on the way home, and Rob mentioned how she looked like a little angel, so I snapped a quick shot with my cell:
She continued looking like an angel even after we got home, so I snapped another shot of her standing in the yard among some flowers and other blooming plants (of which I have no idea what they are called!) What is this yellow bush??? LOL…
After being home for a little while, though, she managed to figure out how to push the power button on the front of the television. She turned it off, on, then off and on again about 50 times. She threw my yarn everywhere, yanked the ponytails out of her hair several times, and attacked Kristin’s artwork, among many other cute and ornery Zoe antics. Haha!
In regards to ornery babies, today I received some excellent news! My sister Traci is going to have a baby! That was nwes I have been waiting to hear for a while now :-P. On the downside, she is moving to Japan in August, and her potential due date is not until November… We joked, though, that we would probably see and talk to each other more with her living in Japan, than we do with her living in Florida! We are so happy for Traci and Calen, though. They will be great parents. Now, I’m expecting a new niece in June, and a new niece or nephew in November. This gives me plenty of reasons to crochet baby things! Any excuse to crochet is a good thing (Especially if it involves babies)!
April 08 2008 | Hobby Lobby and MassageAlumni.com and Online Education and Yarn and coffee and crochet and felted wool and graphics and journaling and school and wool | No Comments »
This is my first felting project. I’m allergic to wool, so I haven’t tried any felting before, but I see so many projects that others have felted so I thought I would give it a try. I bought some wool the other day at Hobby Lobby, so this morning I crocheted a simple headband, and the wool didn’t bother me at all while I crocheted. I was surprised. Here is my finished head/dreadband before felting:
I put it in a sink of hot water. After I took this pic, I added detergent and scrubbed it vigorously with a cloth. Then I put it in the dryer on hot.
Here is the head/dreadband after felting. It didn’t felt as much as I had pictured. I’m not sure if I need a different type of wool, or what. I like it, though, but I’m planning on experimenting more with this felting thing.
And now for the action shots!
My Dreads are One Month Old today! Yaay!!
Here’s a close-up of the felting:
April 03 2008 | Hobby Lobby and Yarn and crochet and dreadband and dreads and felted wool and headband and wool | 1 Comment »
