Neck Buff Head Warmers in Natural Gray

I have a huge bag of merino wool tops in natural gray.  I bought loads because it was inexpensive.  I bought half a kilo. I was having a moment. The wool is lovely and soft with a bit of natural white and a little bit of black.  It has a short staple for merino and it wet felts really well.  It is what I used to make my hubs his man scarf.  I need to get rid of some of this merino to make some space.  So, I made four neck buff/head warmer head band thingys in the last couple of days.  I made cobweb felting batts on the blending board.  I used three batts for each buff.  I made the buffs in 4 different sizes using my hat forms as reference and to dry them on.  I have XS which is still a little bit too big for me but they say will fit a large child, S/M which is a standard size for women or a small man’s head, M/L and L/XL.

I took photos while it was dry, but the camera wants to bleach out everything, so sorry for the poor quality.  I may not get nice photos until summer at this rate! I am showing you the sides so you can get an idea of the pattern.  The one I am wearing and the LRHS (Lower Right Hand Side) has silk laps on them.  I bought some with some silk gauze from a chap in Russia on Etsy.  The laps are lovely.  I used a very small amount.  They stretch and give a nice marbled effect.  I folded it up a bit to wear on my head.  It is not itchy and keeps the ears warm.  The one on the LLHS has white and silver viscose on.  It looks better in person. The ULHS has silver viscose, white sari silk fibers and gray curls on.  The URHS has silver viscose.  The viscose and silk give the wool a really nice sheen that the wool doesn’t have on it’s own.  I used the same template for all four sizes and just fulled them down to the required width I needed for the head forms.  The largest one has the best cobweb effect and the rest fulled tighter the smaller they got.

I consider every make an experiment. As with printing, you never really know how things are going to turn out.  Sometimes you have happy accidents, but ultimately one becomes good with practice and making a lot until you know what you can expect.   I am still learning.  Regardless of how things turn out, nothing is a failure, just a learning experience.  Even the so called fails have a purpose as everything can be re-used.  I never throw out anything.  I know that I have been making a lot of neck warmer cowls lately.  After making the first one, I needed to know what would happen when I made the second one differently, and the same for the next, etc.  I have learned something every time I make something new.  I can now say that I know how to make a neck warmer, cowl, scarf, whatever you want to call them.   I look forward to making more in the future as I don’t believe that I have completely exhausted other ways of making them.  But for now, I shall pause – after I finish the large shawl I started today! 🙂