felt you!

Seconds after shooting this photo I threw these pure wool sweaters into the washer’s hot/cold cycle along with a clean towel. My inaugural foray into sweater felting!

So excited about the (post-felting) fabric potential of these garments. Always loved the colours and warmth of these woolly pullovers, originally thrifted from Value Village many years ago. Unfortunately the sweaters developed holes and emotional weight. Acquired and worn in a past lifetime when I was chronically ill, severely depressed, and 30 pounds overweight, I felt it was time to dig these sweaters out of storage and give them a positive, radical makeover.

In anticipation of beautiful, reclaimed wool felt coming my way, I’m gathering project inspiration from a stack of fresh books from the library: (from botton to top) Warm Fuzzies and Sewing Green by Betz White, and Sweater Surgery by Stefanie Girard.

Seriously fixated on making this “Bomber Hat” (page 22 of Warm Fuzzies) pour moi for winter. Long walks on sub-zero evenings with a dog built for cold and snow require warm head gear! Since I can never follow directions exactly, I’ve got a cute twist in mind for my bomber hat. The variation involves adding handknit elements to the piece, inspired by a film, and potentially rendered in sock yarn. Hopefully my idea won’t add excessive weight to the hat and will flow well with the structure and design. Only way to find out is to go for it. Nothing to lose since I’ll still end up with a pretty sweet bomber hat – with or without flash of inspiration.