Felting a Rug on a Trampoline
Our guest author/artist is Tuulikki Zara Rooke.
Last winter, I buried a couple of raw fleeces in the snow, and let the snow melt “wash” them. Well, it´s not the most thorough way of washing fleeces, but they were slightly whiter in colour, and smelled a little less sheepy when they thawed out in the spring. I have now used two of these fleeces to make a rug, with the assistance of my kids, on a trampoline.
Carding this amount of wool would take quite some time, so I decided to try just whipping the wool instead. As it was slightly windy, and the wool tends to fly around when you do this, I decided to do it on our trampoline, which has a security net around it. Very practical indeed. Beating the wool with sticks is a rather fun way to separate the fibres and, being on a trampoline, it was impossible to resist jumping around in the wool, too.
Now that we had all this wool on the trampoline, I figured we may as well try felting on the trampoline too. We laid out the wool on an old sheet, added a thin layer of carded wool on top, and finally raw locks in different natural colours. We wet it all down with hot water and soap, rolled it up, and then the girls and I (ok, mostly the girls, but I did join in for a bit) bounced around on the trampoline until we ran out of energy.
The next day, we added more hot water and soap and did a bit of rubbing and rolling. Then we rolled it out of the sheet and I let the girls bounce on the rug. An interesting and quite effective way to full a piece of this size.
Apart from being fun, and giving us quite a lot of exercise, there is a practical advantage to felting on a trampoline. All the excess water drains through the woven trampoline, which makes it easy to just keep adding more hot water during the felting process, and to get rid of excess water after rinsing the rug thoroughly with the garden hose.
A rug made with wool equivalent to about three fleeces can hold a lot of water. It took three days to dry. After that, I could add the final embellishments – swirls of black yarn that I needle-felted on the white centre.
It´s a thick and sturdy rug, measuring 115 cm (3.7′) across. It will probably stand for a lot of wear too, as it survived the rather harsh treatment on the trampoline.
Zara, thanks for sharing your family’s adventure with felt on a trampoline this summer. It sure looked like fun with a beautiful result!
35 thoughts on “Felting a Rug on a Trampoline”
What an adventure! And what a clever idea of leaving fleece under snow. Your rug is super and your kids must have enjoyed this felting method.
Thanks! 🙂 Leaving fleece to be washed in snow was apparently a metod used “in the old days”. I just had to try it after I had read about it. 😉
Wow, I love the rug! It all looks a bit too energetic for me, though!
Ah, yes. You need to include two energetic kids in the list of equipment. 😉
Oh my word -Llove Love Love this. I *need* a trampoline now – LOL! What a beautiful rug, who would have guessed that you would be able to keep such lovely locks with this method. It will surely become a family memory piece & so warm for winter, too.
It does look good on the floor. It’s thick and soft to stand on too – and puts a smile on my face every time I look at it. 🙂
I love this! I love it that you used the trampoline and I love the final result. Well done, Zara 😀
Thanks Leonor! A great way to both get to do some felting AND entertain the kids. 😉
Now I want a trampoline and will borrow a couple of kids. Love this
Shouldn’t be a problem. Kids tend to enjoy trampolines. 😉
What great fun and a super rug. 🙂
Thanks! 🙂 Always nice to be able to combine having fun with a decent product at the end. 😉
Fantastic…. loved this idea and the outcome… wow!
Many thanks! (I am so glad it actually worked!).
Wonderful! There were so many advantages to using the trampoline to make this beautiful rug – and it was a bonus that the children had fun too.
And, I got to use a lot of fleece that would have taken ages to wash, and dry, and card, to make something of. 🙂
Beautiful! And now you have a durable family heirloom that can be passed down to those lovely girls.
I hope it will put a smile on their faces too, many years from now. 🙂
Omg I am so in love with this.
🙂
Thanks again for sharing this with us. It really looks like fun. And the rug is gorgeous!
Thanks for letting me share this project with you all! 🙂
What a great idea. Bet the kids had fun!
The kids did have fun – although they were pretty exhausted at the end. 😉
Absolutely brilliant, Zara! I knew you were clever and crafty, but this trampoline-felted rug takes the cake! Thanks for sharing the process.
Many thanks! 🙂 I do enjoy sharing my experiments, especially when they turn out better than expected. 😉
Once felted a Jacobs fleece on the trampoline. Great rolling away, hard work pulling the roll towards us, great fun.
Using long straps and taking turns pullingg and pushing, and two energetic kids to do the bouncing, really helps. 🙂
Great rug and great method Zara. You are a true felter, you see things and think how can it can be used to make felt. LOL
Ha, ha. Thanks! I guess that’s what happens when felting starts taking over part of your brain. You should see me walking through a second hand store – they are just full of stuff that could be used for felting. 😉
Wow that’s is fantastic I love it, and what an original way to felt. I would never have thought of that in a million years. As an added bonus It will provide wonderful happy memories for years to come.
Many thanks! 🙂
Well done Zara, now you just need to teach a class in trampoline felting😀
I do like the idea of the kids doing all the work.
Ha, ha. Yes, a class with a trampoline and two energetic kids listed under equipment required. 😉