wool hat making questions

[HippieLee]

Has anyone made their own felted wool from wool roving like seen here?

Would that be the right material to make a Balmoral or Caubeen?
I feel like if this is a proper way to get the fabric then I could pretty much make any color (or combination) that I wanted - I've even seen some vids online of people making beautiful artwork/illustrations right into the wool during the felting process.

How thick should a Balmoral material be? My wife brought home some felt squares from the fabric store for some project she was doing but they seemed reeeeeeeeally thin and floppy for my purposes - I didn't think they'd make a good cap at all. (And I suspect they were a blend)

IF this is good to make caps with how much does the material shrink during the process? Like say I wanted to end up with 14" square pieces how big would you start? Would the manufacturing process count as the Jocking or do you think I should Jock it more after it's built? (After reading X-Marks there's no way I wouldn't Jock a cap just on general principle.)

K-Day* looms ever closer and I am just itching to get some stuff made for my new arrival. Saturday I started work on my first sporran in a class at Tandy leather. I'm learning a ton from that but the best part is I'm learning what I really need to work on skills-wise to make succeeding sporrans better. (carving and tooling for one thing - practice practice practice to get a steadier hand!)




*Kilt day. My first. Due in mid-November. Holy MOSES it's hard to sit still!

[Pleater]

Oriental hats such as the fez and similar hats are made by felting, but the usual construction method for more Northern styles is either to knit - with some shaping - then to felt and shape to the final product, or to use a woven cloth and cut to the required shape then sew together.

To get the thickness without felting I use crochet techniques to make berets and Balmorals so as to create something with enough body to hold its shape but soft enough to be mouldable.

If you were to make the felt thick enough and to lay the roving first one way and then at right angles, so as to have it strong in both planes then it would be possible to use it for a hat or cap - though I think it would need to have linings and edgings as it would not take any strain on it for long even then.

The amount of shrinkage depends on how much it is processed and also on the wool used. The felting is the result of the myriad small scales on the fibres opening up due to the soap and heat, and then becoming caught up with other fibres due to the agitation and pressure. The only way to find out is to measure the size it starts at and what it becomes when processed for so many minutes, and work from there as a guide.

I believe the making of a yurt involved dragging the felt about on a roller drawn by a pony, so making felt of any size must be a fairly strenuous task. The use of mare's milk is probably optional.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[HippieLee]

lol, thanks - Yep, I think I'll skip the mare's milk. I guess I saw the videos of people making the material and thought that's what a hat was made of but it appears to be cheating somewhat. I have no confidence in my ability to learn knitting and I'm pretty sure I don't want to wear a fez with my kilt.

I had seen the thread here on making a caubeen (http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...caubeen-20569/) - with the circles of material cut out and lined and sewn together. I think I could do that lol. I figured if I made my own material I could customize it even more....Then I ran across this series of instructions: http://www.feltinglessons.com/wet-fe...ro-to-felting/
the last vid where she explains adding extras was pretty cool...it looks easy enough so I might try it anyway (even if I can't make a hat it never hurts to have more creative outlets to make other things) but what I REALLY need to do is visit a store that has actual caubeens and balmorals that I can look at and touch and see what they feel like in real life. I've seen plenty at highland games but never thought to ask a fella if I could touch his balmoral. Which was probably helpful towards my continued existence.