Felting experiment

First,it was lovely to meet so many readers at the Gympie Quilt and Craft Spectacular. I was pleased to find that there was plenty of yarn, and plenty of not-just-quilting fibre crafters in attendance. We had a busy but fun time.

Today I will write about a project I finished a little while ago, after my fun with the French Press Slippers.
I fancied a felted hat. Patterns for these are few and far between, but the Cleckheaton Accessories book put out this year has a pattern I thought might do.

Here is the unfelted hat in Jo Sharp DK wool, aubergine.



Looking at the Cleckheaton book, I was not terribly impressed with the felting intstructions. The pictured hat is only lightly felted, with the stitches clearly visible in the photograph of the finished item. I was concerned that the hat would easily overfelt, and be too small. Fortunately for me, I do not have a top-loading washing machine, and my front loader is not terribly vigorous in its action. If I want to fully felt an item, I need to run through 3 or more cycles. I put the finished hat in my zippered felting bag, and ran it though one cycle.
Here is the finished hat - a perfect fit, and only lightly felted.





I fancy a more stiff brim, and a more fully felted hat, so am thinking of writing my own pattern. The aubergine wool is such a gorgeous colour.