Felting

I love knitting hats for fulling. I used to call it felting -until I became interested in TRUE FELTING, which is taking wool (and yes, sometimes other fibers or fabric) and magically transforming it into an item. Just kidding. Felting is an Ancient Technique and apparently predates any other fiber related technique for creating “things”.

And I thought it was cool when Judy (the nice lady from Utah who sold me my first spindle and gave me my first lesson at Stitches) told me about the pioneers collecting fur/hair/wool whatever from bushes and made yarn and thread via spindles, as they walked West. Then clothing was made etc..Maybe. Anyway felting has quite a history and Dang, yet another thing to do with fibers. I DO have access to lots of wool right off da sheep/ goat (some shorn last week too) and the rabbits are angora too. Can’t believe it; the wool is just stored! I am the only taker! (Dirt Cheap too). They DO have a spinning wheel out at demos but never will be able to spin very much of their wool at that pace, so my treasure is not going to have any significant dent put in it. The demos happen when school kids come around to see the Textile Art Center. Right now they even have rescue silkworms ( from school projects that got out of hand). I wonder.......anyway, maybe you catch my drift as to all the temptations around!

Anyway- been washing and dyeing and carding (by hand) and spinning..and now felting has entered the picture too. I got some great mystery wool Brown Sheep Mill ends at a great price, that I carded up a bit to fluff up (a bit comopressed from shipping) and my second project was done! Nice folks there assured me Brown Sheep uses an assortment of wools, likely merino, Romney, rambouilliet, etc.. I got a set of nice green and natural whites and greys so I could do some felting with less “work” beforehand.

Which is funny to me since the reason I like the idea of diving into all this is due to the “sheep to end product“ focus i am current enthralled with.

The first project was a little dog blanket for the new puppy in the family ( I have a cute sweet smart pitbull named Kona for a “grandpuppy“). Sheep to blankie!

Anyway, I enlarged to 135% an on-line pattern piece (called a resist) for a set of baby booties from 3-D felting technique page. The technique was great to get into but no self respecting baby would keep those things on for more than a millisecond. I will have to knit a little top for it that will draw it in and secure it from the little kickers.

Felting is way cool! I am teaching myself how to pull it off so there is no seam. A hat will be next ( maybe a cloche first then one with more of a brim.

Later!