I finally got around to felting a sample of the turquoise Botany Lap waste I used on a piece I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. It was the lighter blue stripes on the back of the piece, and in patches in a couple of places. Noy surprisingly, it didn’t felt in exactly the same way as the purple sample I tried and mentioned last time:

It even separated at one end like the purple piece did:

This is how it looked at the window:

I bought some ‘slik n soft’  50/50 Superfine Merino and Tussah Silk in the same order, so just out of curiosity, I made a small sample of that. I’d started to worry I’d lost my felting skills, but it was pretty obvious as soon as I’d wet the 50/50 down that it was already starting to felt:

I don’t think I’ve ever used a really blended blend before (if that makes sense?!), I liked how it turned out. I’m still none the wiser about what those tops are, but at least I know it’s not something I did, or didn’t do!  Before I tried felting any of the Botany Lap waste tops, I’d tried spinning some. It was only the 2nd time I’d used my wheel, so thought the trouble I was having was beginner’s issues and also because I was trying tops. My first attempt had been from blended batts I’d drum carded and was much easier. I’d always planned on using the spun yarn for weaving anyway, so used some on one piece:

I made a fibre sampler at the Well Being Centre the other day, using staple fibres in 3 different ways. From top to bottom: Nylon, Plastic, Soy Staple, Bamboo, Cotton. I forgot to use Viscose. The first column is ‘as it comes’; the second column is the fibre ‘fluffed up’ and the third column is some fibre and some wool fluffed up/loosely blended together:

This is a close up of the Plastic fibre all fluffed up:

And this is how the fluffed up Soy looked after felting: