First Feeling of Fascinating Felting

Thank-you to artist friend Tammy, for spending some of her Arts Day with us, teaching and guiding us through our first felting lesson! I really should have started shooting the moment she dumped her beautiful colourful array of wool rovings...but of course my mind wasn't there.

I'm surprised by how hidden this handwork seems to be to the general public. At times when I've mentioned felting to other crafters, I'm met with a blank stare, like they are imagining me cutting out pieces of craft felt from Michel's Craft store and doing something with that!

Tammy graciously led us through molding our balls of roving in warm soapy water, on a blustery day. It is a patient activity and young ones are there a minute, gone a minute, back for a minute, gone to play for another. We did end up throwing them in the clothes dryer later in the day, after Tammy had rinsed the soap out.

The children played quite thoroughly with their felt balls until Joash's got thrown deep into the Day Lilies which should bloom soon - we'll have a better search after they've bloomed.

My dear Mother picked up a large bag of raw wool from a thrift shop, it appears that it must have sat in someones attic for an eternity, and felted itself into dreadlocks of wool. Tammy confirmed my suspicion that it may be not the best wool to work with. But since it is what I have right now - and I'm still very much in the novice stage of felt works...we are going to work with it some.

I'm carding it a little at a time and we'll see where that takes us. Technically we should be doing a little handwork each day (amongst homeschooling), so we'll play with this for now.

Here is a great story about a sheep to a little boy's sweater, written by Farm Mama. The works of wool have been around for centuries. We see their glimmers in fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty, Mother Holle, The Six Swans and many other heart warming tales. It is amazing to me to consider how involved people were in thriving to survive. People historically were producers not just consumers like they are today. Waking up some of those sleeping skills will continue to be a passion of mine!

These shoes are one of my favorite felt creations from Etsy seller Bure Bure, and her blog. Yes, Felt is back!