The Beanie: Before and After

Last week I set out on an adventure. It was an armchair adventure, but an adventure nonetheless. I set out to learn the ancient art of crochet. I began with a Youtube video aptly titled Learn How to Crochet, which demonstrated the basic structure of the stitches. "Okay, I think I could do that", I said. My sister loaned me some yarn and a crochet hook, and I commenced with a simple square washcloth. A couple of failed attempts preempted my first completed square. After that I was, as they say, "hooked"!

Shortly thereafter I found a Beanie Hat tutorial on Youtube that I liked the looks of. I understood everything that was done in the video, so I green-lighted the project. A quick trip to Joann's, 50% off coupons in hand, netted me the yarn I wanted - Lion Alpine Wool Yarn in the color Oatmeal.

I purposely purchased wool partly for its warmth, but mainly for its feltability. Felting (or, more properly though less commonly, fulling) is when a wool yarn that has been knitted or crocheted has its fibers interlocked, creating a felt. This is accomplished by throwing the piece in the washer where the combination of agitation, heat, and moisture tangle all the fibers up. I like the look of felted crochet, so I decided to not only make a hat for my first real project but to also felt the hat.

Before embarking on this potentially disappointing journey, I really wanted to see how crochet looks before and after felting, and I specifically wanted to see how the yarn I bought would look felted. I Googled my heart out, but try as I might I could not find any examples of Lion Alpine yarn felted, and only a few before and after felting photos. So as a secondary objective to my project I decided to add something to this World Wide Web of ours that I felt (no pun intended) was lacking. So I present to you The Beanie: Before and After!

Felting an object shrinks it considerably as you can see from the photos below, so I made my hat much larger than necessary in anticipation of that final step. The felted product is a lot stiffer and less stretchy than its crocheted counterpart. It keeps some stitch definition, but not much.

Before felting.

After felting.

And here it is on a head, notably, mine. It goes from a mushroom-head hat to an acorn-head hat, in my estimation. Unfortunately it shrunk a little too much. I had hoped it would cover my ears (as it did before felting when I extended the the brim down fully), but no such luck. It comes to just above the ears - I'm thinking it might be good for my three-year-old brother!

Before felting.

After felting.

My mom suggested I flip up the front and make it into a pseudo-brim newsboy-esque hat. If only I had made it a few stitches longer!

I spy a berry...

Here's a detail before and after shot of the top of the hat, illustrating the high stitch definition start and the diminished definition finish.

Before felting.

After felting.

 Although the hat may have failed its primary purpose of being my ear-covering head warming device, it did fulfill its secondary goal of illustrating before and after felting with the Lion Alpine yarn.

I had most of a skein left after completing the hat, which required about a skein and a sixth, so I searched out another project. I ended up crocheting a Kindle case - following the pattern found on the Roses n Lilies blog.

It's a great way to use up leftovers!

One other difference between felted/non-felted objects I want to point out: I did notice a slight color change in the yarn. In the picture below the felted hat is above and the unfelted Kindle case is below. It's a slight difference (hardly noticeable in the picture - more so in real life) but one I thought I ought to draw attention to.

I loved working with this yarn! It's color name, oatmeal, really does it justice. The main color is a warm cream/light tan, with streaks and flecks of brown and black. Very creamy, warm, and comfy. Just like a nice big bowl of oatmeal.