A colourful hall table mat can add a wonderful splash of colour to a neutral scheme – and be somewhere to throw your keys and display flowers from the garden!

To make the paisley mat I first made a paper template …

… then I made four layers of blue merino wool to make the base of the mat.

I changed my mind about the centre of the paisley pattern so I re-worked the template.

Then I cut around every line on the template before placing it on the wetted down blue fibres.

I used very thin wool yarn to mark the lines on the template, working outwards from the circles and removing the paper as each line was finished.

I put down a fine circle of dry wool fibres then placed a circle of very open weave fabric on top of each one.

I filled in the tear-drop shape with merino wool, did some outlining with thin black wool yarn, then added some white cotton nepps.

I also placed white cotton nepps around the edge.  They are lovely but so hard to work with – a lot of patience is needed to persuade them to join with the wool fibres!

I rubbed, not rolled, this mat and after a while I decided that I didn’t like the edge so I trimmed it with a rotary cutter.  The edge healed during the last bit of agitating.

I rubbed mostly on the reverse side with the felt between two pieces of net and the bamboo providing gentle agitation on the underneath (as shown below).

Finished size is 70 x 33cm (27½” x 13”).

I find that my felt is not as smooth when I’ve rubbed it compared to when I roll it.  In retrospect I realise that I should have rolled the mat.

I’m happy to just agitate wool fibres by rubbing when the piece will be displayed as art work, but for anything else I think rolling produces a better finish.