2ktog

I have actually also been knitting a few things myself, though most of them have just ended up logged in Ravelry. My crowning achievement, though, has been the folded brim cloche from Maggie Pace's Felt It!. It's sort of like the side dishes (and dessert) that we brought to my brother's for Thanksgiving: incredibly simple with very impressive results.

The first cloche was made (of course) for my dear, sweet darling Betsy. We knew we wanted to start with a red Savoy that was reminiscent of the red of her Valentine scarf. Unfortunately, there wasn't a complementary red in the Savoy palette, but I think the tan that we ended up with looks lovely, especially with the button we found (at The Yellow House).

The second one is a thank you gift for her mom, who was gracious enough to give us a hand-me-down automobile, thus allowing us to both have jobs. The first attempt at a thank you gift turned out to be a disaster, and I will post a picture of it at some point to serve as a warning for others.

The blue cloche, however, has turned out wonderfully, but we still need to pick out a button for it and finish it off:

As it turns out, the Malabrigo we used felted as nicely (or possibly even more nicely) than the Savoy. The fabric is a bit thicker, but the slight variegation is visible if you look closely.

In the same batch of felting, I tried to churn out one of my fez concepts, based roughly on the top hat I made out of Knit.1, but it also turned out to be a complete disaster. The moral of the story is to always make a smaller, test version. Especially if you know a baby who might need a fez.

Ah well. Live and learn.

Last of all, as a big sister gift for Z, I found the one use of novelty yarn that Betsy will reluctantly condone: hedgehogs.

With needle felted face ans special arched eyebrow details by Betsy herself.