Jen Crochets! (and does other crafty stuff!): I finally finished something, and it "felt" so good!

Yay! FINALLY! I have another FO! woohoo. I have been wanting to try felting, and found this pattern --> for a cute little hat.

I thought it would be fun to make for my mother for her birthday (mom...if you're reading this...STOP now!) She sometimes has 'red hat' luncheons with friends, and I thought it would look cute in red and purple for her to wear to those lunches.
This is the picture from the website of what this hat should look like "before" felting (left) next to what MY version of the hat looked like "before" felting (right)-

Ok...so being still relatively new to this crochet thing, I made a little mistake when making this hat. The instructions were a little bit confusing to me, and I didn't notice this until reviewing them -- and after crocheting about half the shell rows with purple fun fur --that the 'contrasting eyelash yarn' was supposed to be 100% mohair or wool. Oops. Because, you see, 'fun fur' ISN'T 100% mohair. Hmm...I had to make a decision, do I continue on, or frog it? I decided to continue on, becuase fun fur isn't "fun" to frog. Had I been a more experienced crocheter, I might have done something like modify the pattern by either using a mohair for most/some of the rest of the repeats, only do one row of eyelash yarn for every 2 rows of wool or some other sort of modification. What this boils down to, is that the eyelash yarn didn't shrink up like the wool did, so I am going to have to tack up the shell rows to 'shrink' them down, because as they are, they are a little too much of the hat!

For perspective, here's what the hat looks like worn before felting -

Here is the finished picture of my hat - on the left, the picture from the website showing what it 'should' look like, on the right my version. I think it turned out pretty good for a first try at felting!

I am going to have to go in and trim up the fun fur that is peeking out from the inside of the brim, and I haven't tacked up the rows of shells to shorten them yet, but overall I am really pleased with how it came out. I was very nervous when putting it in the washing machine, not sure if I should just trust that it's going to come out ok, but it did! woohoo!!!

This is a picture of the 'fancy hatblock' I used to shape the hat - it's made from a kitchen canister with a mixing bowl on top of it. (note the specialty clips that I used to hold the brim in place *grin*)

Can I just say I am in LOVE with felting! It's like magic! And I still have most of a skein of the red wool to use up 'experimenting' with more felting! Yay!