Talking about WIZARDS..

I have been lucky enough that some of my lovely customers have sent photos of themselves in their Radagast the Brown kit - two were dressed up for Halloween and one for a Renaissance Fair..  I wanted to share them with your all (with their kind permission).  

Leslie spent All Hallows Eve day at work dressed as Radagast -
with a very worrying clown.  She had a little birdie tucked under her hat :) and Sebastian the Hedgehog is perched on her shoulder

Kyle the Green stepping out on All Hallows Eve.
Kyle has the hat with the embroidered green band for tucking found treasures..  can you see his little birdie ?

Pete enjoying some sunshine at a Renaissance Fair

Don't they all look fantastic?!  

I know Leslie is planning to wear her Radagast to the opening night for the upcoming Hobbit movie :)  I wonder how many more of my hats will be worn to cinemas around the world in December.. 

xoxo

One more wizard hat..

This is the one that I didn't show in the last post.  I've been wanting to do a Gandalf hat for aaages and just not gotten around to it.  A few weeks ago I DID!  But things didn't go to plan..  This was the first pointy hat I'd made in 2 years so had forgotten the past experience, which might explain a lot.

I wanted to make a long, crumpled and bent looking hat just like Gandalf wears in the films..  So I decided to use 4 layers, thoroughly felted, so it was strong and self supporting - I didn't want it to flop!  

I made a looong resist..  

 and enclosed it in 4 layers.  Inside was dark grey merino, then white Falkland, followed by 2 layers of lighter grey merino.  I worked it hard and felted it down so it was lovely and strong.. I net it into shape and it stayed there a treat

Drying on my big block (with cling film to keep the canvas block dry)

 The problem was it was just to long!  It did not look right at all!  And it wouldn't shrink down any more.. So I cut the end off!  Then cut a gusset so I could stitch it back into a point.  I did work the felt a little more and managed to lose the stitching a little.. it's still there but not really noticable.

I'm happy with the shape and length of the point now..
 and the brim looks better on than placed on the table top, it's still the same shape as it was on the block

Now I did catch my husband trying this on :) I've told him I want him to wear it to the Middle Earth weekend in Moseley next year :)  

But to be honest it isn't really any good for wearing.. it's too thick and stiff. Makes a nice ornament though , I think I shall offer it to the Museum where I used to work.. see if they want it for their Halloween displays, they often do fantasy events too so I reckon it would be a good home for it. 

Lesson learned = 4 fibre layers is just toooo much for a hat!  

More hats :)

Not going to say too much here.. just share a few photos with you :)  I've been making quite a few wizardly and Hobbit hats...  I think it may be because I'm excited for the next Hobbit movie - which I am planning to see on my birthday.

This Hobbit hat features my favourite .. hand stitched add-ons :)

2 new Radagasts.. one has gone to Ireland the other to Finland

A red Radagast-ish one

For some reason witches hats always seam to suit me :) 

I have one more wizardly hat to show you.. I don't have a finished photo to add so will have to take one tomorrow :)  There's a bit more to tell with that one anyway.

xoxo

A couple more hats..

I didn't take process photos with most of the hats I made over the last month or so.. but here are a few more finished hats :)

This is one of my favourites :)
I love stripes, spirals and buttons

I've done several berets..
I like this ones white silk on black/grey

And you know I love Celtic Labyrinths!
This has one on the crown.. you can't really see on the photo,
but there's a handspun chunky (purple) yarn with metallic sparkles
which runs between the green

Then I had a week where I was drawn to pastel stripes..

So I felted a big, bandy bowlerISH hat :)

And a cloche too :)

This hat was actually deeper than I wanted it to be.. so I cut it.
Removed a section so it was the right size and stitched the crown back on.
I added lines of simple embroidery and edged it with blanket stitch in some
lovely wool/silk yarns from World of Wool.

My goodness.. I really have done a lot of hats :)  and I haven't finished showing them yet lol!

I felted mittens to go with a couple of the hats..  

More hats (fun ones) next time :)

xx