Second try

A few weeks ago I made a new hat style that I posted here and on my website. (See below) It just kind of happened on it's own without my paying too much attention to how I'd done it. That's how my best designs always develop. If I try too hard or think too much about it, then it might come out all right, but not really a totally new creation. Of course not all out-of-nowhere new creations necessarily work well enough to try to duplicate. I really liked this one, though, so when it got sold during the holidays, I wanted to try and make another similar one.

That was not so easy, though, because I couldn't remember what I'd done. It took me over two weeks of pulling out and redoing before I finally succeeded. I ended up doing it backwards and upside down. I know that doesn't make any sense, but that's what I did.

With the first one I started at the top and ended up at the brim, but that was really hard to do, so I wanted to figure out an easier way. I figured it might work better if I started at the brim and worked up, but then I ran into all kinds of problems because the stitches were upside down. Eventually I ended up fudging it a bit in various ways, and it finally came out looking pretty good. I doubt I'll be making too many more like this though. They look great, but are really a pain to put together.

Here they both are along with a photo of the woman who nabbed the first one. It's now found a happy home somewhere in Chicago.

The fuzzy part is dyed Samoyed hair, and the rest is wool. I added a tiny bit of blue angelina in the section above the brim in the blue one, which gives it a bit of subtle sparkle. I like the soft blue, and the extra poofy clumps of unspun fiber added in. I've just put it up on the website, but may change my mind and keep it. I think it looks sort of Russian or Mongolian.

Hats and Scarves

I decided to get some fancy display heads for my hats to dress things up a bit for the holiday fairs. When they arrived I realized they were a lot bigger than the ones I usually use, and they needed scarves to go with the hats. So I made some to match a few of the nicest hats. Here are three hat and scarf combos I came up with.

The white and light rosy puce colored hat has silver beads in it that are a little hard to see, but if you click on the images they enlarge to full size, which helps a lot. The hat that goes with it is a blend of wool and white mohair and matches some of the yarn used in the hat.

The black one has quite a bit of sparkly in it, which is also hard to see because for some reason computer images can't register sparkles very well. This one is made from wool with novelty eyelash added. The scarf is a little wider and longer than the other two. All the scarves are knitted.

The yarn for the top of the black and gray pill box hat has bits of different colors of commercial yarn plied in with black cord. I used that same yarn for the scarf. This hat is crocheted. After I'd finished the scarf, I realized that it would also go well with the red and gray hat in the following post because it has some of this same yarn in it. Juaquetta Holcomb gave me the idea for this yarn, and some of it is hers.

I've now made a Hats and Scarves page for my website. All of these plus one more are on it.

Two New Hat Styles

I've been busy preparing for the upcoming holiday craft fairs. This year I'm doing one in Ukiah, California, and my daughter, Alexis, is going to help out and contribute some of her own creations to the display. She's very excited and is working like crazy to get some hats made. Her's look similar to the one posted here in April. This fair is a benefit for the local Waldorf School, so I feel very good about participating. Too many craft events these days are run by greedy people wanting to make money off of crafters who are already making less than minimum wage. There are lots of creative people in the Ukiah area, so it should be a fun event worth checking out if you're anywhere nearby. I'm posting a separate entry with details about time and place, etc. for those of you who might want to come, along with dates for the annual Telegraph Ave. Holiday Fair in Berkeley, which is not going to a good cause, and may or may not be worth a visit.

I have a couple of new styles that I'll be showing. One of them is on my website, but I'm keeping the other for the fairs. If the one on the website gets sold before the fairs, I'll make another that's similar. If they both get sold in Ukiah, so be it. By that time, I may not have time to make replacements.

This is the one that's 'already out' - It has a very nice beaded tassel, and the top part is extra sturdy, being made from two ply wool and llama wool, so it holds it's shape perfectly.



The one that I'm saving is a bit fancier with fluffy dyed Samoyed hair, pink poofies and a feisty tassel on top. They're both my own original designs, as are all my hats, which brings me to something I'd like to state here for the record. I would prefer that admirers of my hats refrain from expressing their appreciation by trying to copy them. I've seen various such attempts online done up in store bought yarns, and I have to say they don't look especially nice. My hats tend to maintain their own inherent copy write protection in that they can only be made with my yarns combined with my particular sense of design and color - plus I never use patterns. It's all a product of my own completely individual brand of creativity, and a little respect would be nice.

A woman once asked me how I get the ideas for these hats. When I told her they come out of my brain, she just stared at me blankly and said "No, I want to know how you learned to do this." When I told her I'd been to art school, that seemed to settle the matter. For her there had to be a prescribed method for doing everything, so anything could thereby be learned. Well, it can't. Some things just sprout out of nowhere. If it's especially great, it's called inspiration. Obviously my hats aren't particularly inspirational, but for sure there is no way and nobody - not even me - who can teach a course in how to make them. So there is also no way to reproduce them.

You can however go to art school and take courses in Fiber Art - something that wasn't available when I was in school. Then you can go out and create all kinds of wonderful designs of your own. It takes a little more effort, but let's face it - plagiarism is just plain tacky, and creating something new and original is a whole lot more fun and rewarding.

My Holiday Fair Schedule

The 36th Annual

Children's Holiday Faire

Presented by

The Waldorf School
of Mendocino County

Saturday, December 6, 2008
11 AM to 5 PM

Carl Purdy Hall, Ukiah Fairgrounds


Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair

Berkeley, California

Saturday and Sunday
December 13th and 14th
11AM to 5 PM

I'll be on the west side of the street between Haste and Channing

Saturday, December 20th
11 AM to 5 PM

West side between Haste and Channing

Sunday, December 21st
11 AM to 5 PM

Northwest corner of Channing and Telegraph on the sidewalk, not in the street

Since this is an outdoor street fair, I won't be able to be there if it's either raining or extremely windy.

Another scarf

I just finished another scarf today. This one is only 6 1/2 ft long and about 5 1/2 inches wide and was a custom order. It's made from malamute hair blended with a small amount of wool. I spun it somewhat lumpy and then crocheted it. Husky hair tends to be fragile and holds up much better when blended with another fiber. The hair was a mixture of white, gray/brown, and light gray. Carding it together with some off white Corriedale wool made it come out mostly light gray with bits of white and darker gray/brown.

It's incredibly soft, thick and warm and looks great wrapped around the neck with both ends hanging down in front. I hope I'll get a photo of its new owner wearing it.

For those who don't like the idea of using pet hair to make a scarf, please understand that that I always soak the finished yarn in baking soda in order to eliminate any odor.

The eleven foot scarf

One of my favorite customers had been wanting a very long scarf for a very long time, so I finally decided to make him one. He wanted it woven and in earth tones, and I promised it would be about nine feet long at least.

This took some doing, as I had to find a spot where there was enough space to warp my little heddle loom to that length. I decided to do it in my cabin, since there isn't all that much space in the room I rent in Berkeley. So I paced off about 12 of my size 9 feet and figured that would do it including the fringe.

I spun the warp yarn a thin two ply for extra strength, as I've had problems with my handspun fraying as it went through the reed. That took about six hours at least, as 12 feet of 2 ply warping for a 4 inch wide scarf is one heck of a lot of yarn. Once I got it on the loom, it went well though. No fraying at all.

I made the warp in undyed natural brown Romney wool, then dyed some thicker Corriedale for the contrasting weft colors in subtle greens and browns. About a week later, I took it off the loom and found it was about 11 feet long!

I called my customer and told him that it wrapped around my neck and hung down to my feet. He was completely thrilled to hear that, and very glad it wasn't just some kind of skimpy nine footer. He loved how it came out and has promised to send me a photo of himself (and maybe his girlfriend, too) wrapped up in this scarf. Definitely the longest scarf I've ever made!

Finally found some raw flax

Now that summer is over, I've finally found some raw flax to make an old fashioned straw hat. What with the wild fires and various other distractions, I got a bit behind in my work.

I've been trying to find spinable flax off and on all summer. All my suppliers were out. I am also out of the raw hemp that I like use to make my straw hats. I had given up on ever making another straw hat when a new member of my spinner's yahoo group showed up selling flax that he grows and processes himself. I immediately ordered some of his less processed fiber, thinking that it might replace the hemp. He also sells roving that's been prepared for spinning, and I'll probably get some of that at some point, too.

The flax is not quite as rough as the hemp was, but it's a good substitute. So I went ahead and made a straw hat even though it's now fall and put it up on my website. Heck, maybe somebody in Australia will want it! It just looked too nice to put away until spring.

Here's a photo of it outside my cabin in Mendocino County.

Greenfield Ranch Fire Brigade

Here are a couple of photos of some of the folks who turned out to fight the fires in our area of Mendocino County, California, when the local firefighters were too overwhelmed with the number of fires started in the county by dry lightning last week. We've always been a do it yourself community, and that includes fighting our own wildfires. Cal Fire is now on the job, and some of the fires are coming under partial control. It's still very smoky, though, and I've got a bad headache from breathing it. It seeps in through the cracks in the walls and floor of my cabin, so it's even smoky inside.


I went up to my homestead on Friday to stand watch because of a weather report that predicted more dry lightning. Fortunately that didn't happen, but I did have to prepare for a mandatory evacuation. Then, once the mandatory was lifted, there were all kinds of other jobs to do, like trying to make sure my water system would have enough pressure if needed. This was hampered by a wood rat who has been hanging around my cabin stashing acorns and old nectarine pits. Seems he found an opening in the top of my water tank and has been dropping the acorns in there. When I turned on the tank nothing came out because it was all plugged up with acorns. Took me about a half hour to clear them all out. My house would have burned down by that time if I'd needed the water to put out a fire!

Maybe now that things have calmed down a bit, some hats may happen this week!