Bamboo Skull Cap

This is a new skull cap that I've just posted to my website.  It's made almost entirely from bamboo, which may sound a little weird, but spinable fibers come from a variety of plants, like hemp, flax (linen), bamboo and cotton of course.  There is also corn fiber, but I haven't tried that yet.  The bamboo looks very much like silk and has a subtle sheen that I like very much. The blues and lavenders are all bamboo, and the dark green is hemp, which is not shiny at all, so that makes for some nice contrast.

Spring Hat

This is the second hat I made for the customer in Arizona.  It's made from hemp, linen and cotton.  He wanted browns with blue and green accents again, but since plant fibers use a very different sort of dye process, the colors are a little lighter.  He was very happy with this hat as well.

A New Design

I've been busy this winter with survival issues related to firewood and dealing with wrecked roads due to huge rains here in Mendocino County, CA.  Not much time for making hats, but I do want to post a couple of new ones.  

I had a custom order for two hats from some very nice folks in Arizona.  One was a lighter weight hat for spring and the other a very warm winter hat.  The winter hat actually ended up inspiring a new style.  It's a sort of cross between a small tam and my modified fez hat style.  The fez hat is usually flat on top with extra body created by using two ply yarn that sort of tweedy.  I also incorporate a longish tassel with a bead on the end.  I call this a tassel fez. The one pictured here is modified to make the top a bit wider and turned under.  My customer liked this style but instead of the tassel, he wanted a design in browns with blue and green accents

So this is what I came up with.  A modified tassel fez hat but with a design on top instead of the tassel.  He loved it, and it's still cold enough to wear this winter!

Malamute Hair Long Scarf

This is a scarf I never got around to posting here.  I made it last spring for a customer who had a huge lot of saved malamute hair.  She had several dogs.  So there was plenty of fiber for a nice long scarf.  It was super soft and warm. 

Large Beige Tam

 This is a large size, 11 in. diameter tam made from very pale gray alpaca (looks white in the photo), beige chow hair, gray mohair, and beige and gray shetland wool.  Very soft and comfy, and very warm.

Wool, Malmute and Angora Tam

This is an extra large tam and is about 11 inches in diameter.  The darker gray is jacob wool and the lighter fuzzy sections are malamute hair.  The thin off white stripes are angora.  Very soft and warm!

Ski Hat Time

I've been busy getting ready for a couple of holiday craft fairs at a local museum.  Very nice venue with great lighting.  The fair was Friday and Saturday of last week and went well.  Ski caps were most popular as it's getting really cold here in Northern California.  Here's one that got sold.

And here is another that I had just made, but didn't sell.  I really like the colors.

Big Flower Hat

It's been awhile since I've made one of these, and since the last of them got sold over the holidays, I decided to try making a new one.  I had forgotten how to work the flower into the hat, though, so it took a little experimenting before I finally got it right.  The purple and green combination had always been one of my favorites.  There are also some gold silk tussah accents and some white fuzzy popcorns.  The gold color of the silk is natural, as tussah silk is gathered wild and usually found on oak trees where the tannin in the leaves turns the silk gold.