Pirate hat

Kiddo is crazy about pirates. So it's no surprise what he wants to be
for Halloween. I've decided to take care of his costume early so I can
then get to work on some costumes to sell.
I found a great pattern on ravelry for a knitted & fulled hat.
After the laundromat fiasco fulling my slippers, I opted to bring it
on a trip to my mom's & use her machine. Even tho that means mailing
it back so as not to squish it in the luggage.
Here it is all blocked. We still need to decorate it with some
feathers & buttons later.

Finally.... After

Wow, what a work out hand felting, or rather hand fulling is! (it's
called fulling when you make a knit thing felt instead of taking raw
wool fibers & felting them)
I will not be anxious to do it that way again. But I learned a lot.
And as the slippers are currently blocking on my feet (yes that means
I'm walking around in wet slippers until they dry), they will have a
perfect custom fit.

During

Well, the first attempt didn't go so well.
My partner insisted I should wash all the dirty towels we had rather
than the 3 I had been planning.
This resulted in one slipper not getting immersed enough in the hot
water.
Secondly; the wash cycle at the laundromat was just too short for even
the well immersed one to felt enough.
I tossed them in the dryer, but it didn't seem to have any effect.
So I put them in the washer again for a second attempt.
Gonna check them now

later: sigh, ok a 2nd cycle thru the washer barely helped. Rather than spend all my money on this I've decided to switch to the "hard boiled" method as outlined on the knit like a pirate site
it's all good practice for when i felt the pirate hat i'm knitting for kiddo (also from the knitlikeapirate folks)

Before

Just put my hand knit slippers in the wash to felt
Wish me luck

release your inner Pan

Made a pile of fimo horns last week. What a fun & satisfying break
from sewing for sunday's craft fair.
If you missed it, The Real Mercantile will be back at Chez Poulet
again in Oct. More details to come.
The horns are available in my etsy shop

Craft fair sign

I finally made myself an elzzadoll sign to hang at my booth for craft
fairs

netbook cozies

i whipped up one of these little protective laptop sweaters for father's day, and will now be debuting them this Sunday at the Real Mercantile craft show in the Mission district of SF
  they are made from upcycled sweaters with a fleece lining and three industrial snaps each, to fit a 7" x 10.5" netbook

next up i'll be making some for full sized lap tops

and as always, i take custom orders