How about some felt making?

I think felt making is a sunny day activity. It must be to do with all that water. And its a sociable one too. Some things are naturally solitary activities, but knitting and felting seem to me to be much more fun in a group. This weekend is turning out to be glorious and Martha the perfect companion. She has been experimenting with making finger puppets - more of that later - I have wanted to make some more 'beads' for a while now and here is the photo journey from fibre to felt.
I made felt balls last year, these beads are made like this.....

First, get yourself set up with a nice big flat surface, a few old towels, a kettle full of boiling water, some nice soap - I use 'wool soap', a bowl with cold water and some wool fibres. I use 'merino tops' from Wingham Wools - over there on my 'supplies' list.

As you know, wool will felt when it is hot, wet, agitated and soapy, so that's what were going to do. It also needs structure, so laying the fibres at an angle to each other works.

Lay more colour in the opposite direction and keep stacking up them up like this until you have a soft pillow of fibres, about five or six layers deep.

A bit of net curtain comes in handy now. Lay it over the top, sprinkle very hot water over and rub with the soap until you can feel that the fibres are all wet and soapy

take the curtain off and roll up the stack like a swiss roll

then roll and roll and roll back and forth - use more hot water and a bit more soap to keep it hot and soapy and feel it start to get firmer

When it is all holding together really well, put it into cold water for a while. This firms it up even more. Then, stick it in the washing machine on a hot wash with some towels - the ones you were using! I made another with more layers - when they come out of the machine they are fantastically firm. Cut them into slices of varying thickness - this can be tricky - you need your biggest, sharpest scissors

When they look like this you put them into a net bag and wash them in the machine again. This must be why you need good weather - to dry all that washing!

then they look like this - very soft and blurry.

That's that - I'll show you what I do with them when I've done it! But maybe you have plenty of ideas of your own?

The fund raising evening was a triumph on many levels. Everyone had a great time, I realised what a fantastic team us knitters have become and we made some money for our target!  To paraphrase Annie 'What's not to like?' 

Enjoy your felting! Here is a glimpse of Martha's work..... more later!

Comments

[carolyn]

Thanks for this, I really would like to have a go at felting so will be back at some stage to follow your instructions. Must find more time!

[Katie]

Can't wait to see Martha's work!

Thanks for the felt ball tutorial.

[katie]

Martha's finger puppets coming soon - I promise!

[wendy]

Oh they look really great. Tell me? did you hang that net curtain back up again when you'd finished?

[katie]

of course I did Wendy!!

[melissa]

wow- thank you so much for this week tutorial. i'm dying to try felting- and this is just the kick-start i need- thank you!
p.s. martha's finger puppets are so great.