8/22/08 - And now felting is complete! I did actually shift from hand to machine felting, because the hand felting really wasn’t doing as much as I wanted. Even my first attempt at machine felting didn’t felt as much as I’d hoped. The hat’s a little bigger than I’d like, and the fabric isn’t as solid as I was hoping. In fact, I didn’t think it was much of a change until I compared pictures and realized how soft the colors look now. I’m actually pretty happy, although I might try to felt a little more…later.

8/21/08 - The knitting is complete! I made 2 modifications to the original pattern. First, because I wanted a roll brim hat, I knit the brim (the part before any decreases) longer--I think it was about 1 1/2 longer, but I didn’t measure. I just knit until it looked like it would roll enough. Second, I took a chance and ignored the part about not using a 100% wool yarn. I figure I can just be careful not to felt the hat too much; I really wanted to use my Noro on this. I haven’t felted it yet, and I’ll definitely have to do that by hand to avoid too much shrinkage (’cause right now it fits!).

8/9/08 - Cast on!