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This Weeks Felting

This Weeks Felting

Comments 17 comments

 

This week, I managed to make a few small felt pieces.  My husband has been asking me to make some more handle covers for his cast-iron pans.

 

Second. I have a wrap for my travel mug.  I don’t really like the feel of the metal of the mug, especially in the cold. I have several travel mugs, but only one cover.   I have been using the same one for about 10 years. It still looks good, but I thought I should have more than one. I wanted it to be a little longer and wider than the one I’m using at the moment. The one I have now is purple and blue. This one has a green background. The colour is shartruse, I think. The curls are Blue Faced Leicester.

Then I flipped it over and folded the edges in neatly.

This is the finished piece. It still needs a couple of buttons and some elastic to hold it on.

sheep curls felted int the green back ground A close-up of the curls.

close up of curls on green background

Lastly, I finished the strange-looking book resist. This was round one. At the time, I thought it was stiff enough, so I went ahead and rinsed it out and added lots of clothespins so it would dry correctly.

green 5 pointed 3d sat shape with clothespins outside of same piece with clothespins

After opening it up, I was not thrilled with it. It opened wide. I thought maybe ironing it would help. I was showing it in a Zoom chat, and Karen asked if it was completely fulled. My first thought was yes, it was stiff, but as I played with it, it got softer and softer. So I wet it down and kept working it while watching a cosy mystery.  It shrank more and is much sturdier. I needed a lot fewer clothespins. So I rounded the bottom of the arms.

same piece fulled again with clothespins . much stiffer

This is after it was dry. It doesn’t stand on its own. I will need to flatten the bottom or make a little holder, if I want it to stand like this.

same piece, dry without clothspins

Next, I thought I would try partially turning it inside out. I think I like it better this way.

same piece semi inverted, top shot same piece, semi inverted, bottom shot

One not felt thing. Spring is here, Lambing has started.

This little lamb was born on May 2. he will end up cream coloured. You can see the true colour past the dark tips.

wooly sheep and lamb

 

 

A surprise at the party

A surprise at the party

Comments 13 comments

Over the last few years, I have been regularly following a couple of you tube channels on Felting. I occasionally trip over others too, but if Sara from Sarafina Fiber Art or Marie from Living Felt are doing a live chat or felting video I try very hard to toon in. Unfortunately the last couple months, I have been randomly surprised as to what day it is, which has made watching live chats much more challenging.

I defiantly have vague memories of Living Felt talking about having their 21st anniversary party for the company, but could not remember the date, but I knew it would be on a Wednesday! I just had to figure out what day Wednesday was, and pick the right one. Thanks to my Computer, who kindly will tell me what the day is, if I hover over the date!,  I was able to attend the virtual party they were throwing.

Party invitation and photo of Marie and her felting Fairies in Texas1.1) Living Felt 21st Online Birthday Party,  April 9th 2025.

Marie Throws a fabulous on line party! Instead of the guests bringing Living felt presents, she was drawing names, from those who had commented on 2025 videos after they aired, and those in the live chat and giving them presents!  There were various fiber packs, wet or dry felting kits, I think there was a workshop and i defiantly saw felting tools.  There were many comments of Congratulations, Ooh-ing, and AHh-ing at the prizes! They were very generous too.

Marie showing the huge basket of names (about one thousand) 1.2) About a thousand names of people who had commented on 2025 videos in the you tube comments.

hand adding slips of paper into a mettle decritive drum to be mixed and then she can draw the names 1.3) Names from the live commenters are being added to the drum. (My name is in there, somewhere).  More names being added to the drum!

Then the party began! With presents randomly dawn for the party gests. They started out pulling names from after video commenters, from the basket. As you can see above, the basket was huge and Marie had mentioned she thought there were about one thousand names in it.

a few of the different presents Marie gave, fiber fiber and fiber with something else in a small box.1.4) various presents that valorous names received.

At about 20 minutes into the party, Marie turned to the mettle turning drum, to pull names of people watching live. One of the name papers from the drum tried to leap out as they opened the drum. She joked about it for a moment and then read “Jan Scott”. OH! That was a surprise! I wonder what is in the bag? It a big pink bag, maybe Maori or burckshaft fiber? Or a wool Wow mat, maybe with a topper?  Ok calm down, and wait for them to open the bag.

pink paper bag held a Blue nilon bag1.5) 20:05 name trying to escape the rolling drum as the door was opened, a large pink bag appeared from under the table.

From the pink bag a blue bag appeared, ooh I like blue! Marie explained it was the Wet Felting Tools Bundle. Well that is a surprise!

I suspect this is a sign I will be visiting Ann for some wet felting fun as soon as she is off work! We have a couple purses to make and maybe I can sneak in a pair of slippers? It will help me get out of my dry felting comfort zone again!

The presents continued but I was kind of in shock! I won? Really?  Well that cheered me up! I have been a bit glum, being stuck at home and looking forward to pain meds is a bit of a downer. (I am getting out a bit now but I take a few days to recover, but I think it’s worth it)

About 2 weeks pasted and anesthetic brain fog ate my memory of winning.  So when, on the evening of April 22nd, Glenn walked in with a big box, I immediately thought, “ah he must have being doing another board game trade”. No, it was for me. Oh no, did I ordered something and not remembered? NO!! it’s from Living felt in Texas!!! Yah!!!! (now i remember)

Drat! It’s much too dark to take pictures tonight, I want you to see what’s in the box too. I must be patent and wait until tomorrow, when, hopefully, there will be light. (I’m optimistic the light will return tomorrow.)

a large cardboard package i dont remember ordering2.1) A Mysterious Box, for me?

So now that its tomorrow (time is passing randomly quickly in this blog, just as it has been for me lately. Is this Tuesday? I will ask the computer, no it’s second Tuesday which means its Wednesday.) Lets open the box!! I Can’t wait any longer!!!!

i found a slitly squished pink paper bag in the box!2.2)  A large, slightly squished, Pink Paper bag!

card with note from Marie thanking me for cellibrating with them!2.3) there is a card and note! That was so kind!

OH the pink bag!! What’s in it? It got a little smushed in the box but I found it has a lovey note in it!

Let’s peek inside the pink, its Blue!! With another present beside it! the pins are quite cool and there is a small note book too!

blue nilon bag with close up of pins and note book2.4) the blue bag is actually a backpack! “Living Felt BFF Backpack, Quick Dry Nylon”. 2 cool pins and a small note book! with pretty cellophane ribbons!

Let’s investigate further, what’s in the blue bag?

vasrious itums sticking out of the bag, hard to tell what they are execpt for the bambu rolling mat and probubly a ball brausa2.5) first peek in the blue bag,

Wet felting supplies! Too many to see while there in the bag! Is that the nose of a ball braus? Also, what is that box shape I feel at the bottom? So many questions, I should unpack it and we can find out.

its a bit easyer to see now that everything is out of the bag but sitll a lot of white things and a pink ballbrausa 2.6) what’s inside the bag,

You still can’t see exactly what all this cool pack has. Let’s look at things in smaller groups.

Ball Brause for wetting the fiber and “Nuno Felting resist small bubble 24" x 36"”2.7) the Ball Brause for wetting the fiber and “Nuno Felting resist small bubble 24″ x 36″”

“Wet Felting Thin Resist”2.8) this is the “Wet Felting Thin Resist”

more of the items in the blue bag displayed on white fabric. see parigraph below for list.2.91) more of the items in the blue bag displayed on white fabric

Inside the From Left to rite and back to front; “Bamboo Mat” (Fabulous my last one died ages ago!).  “Premium Mesh 54”x 1 yard” and “Thin plastic sheeting 9′ x 12’”.  Orange ties, (these are the same material I use to tie up the loom for warping, but the warping ones are mostly blue), and finally “Olive Oil Soap” we should probably take a peek inside the box and see what it looks like. I tried some very cheep olive oil soap the last wet felting project and liked it, so this much nicer one should be wonderful. its also Much bigger!

olive oil soap sitting beside its empty box, soap still wraped in plastic2.92) olive oil soap, I am looking forward to trying this!

It’s been a rough couple months here, and it will be a bit longer before I can get back to normal. So this was a wonderful boost to my spirits and gives a focus to look forward to later this summer.

Marie has been a great enjoyment through this, even if afterwards I am a bit unsure of what the chat had been about, and was a source of inspiration before surgery. She tends to have more introductory felting topics but many of them have inspired something different from what she had intended. If you have felted before or felted a lot, you can take the idea and run with it in a different direction or if you are new to felting you can follow along as suggested. You may remember my Bat on a stick (ok it’s a mettle chopstick) let me show you what I should have been making first, then show you what I did with the instructions. (I got distracted and added an armature for wings, with muscles.)

Maire's cute bat, my cute in a very different way bat, realy i was following instructions till it all went horribly rong and i added an armature for wings! i still think mine is cute too.3.1) Needle Felt Simple Animals: Bat, Owl, and Red Panda Forest Friends! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vePY10Y72U&t=19s

What my bat looked like. I gave him arms and added biceps, triceps and deltoids.

This was a fabulous surprised and really cheered me up. Thank you to Marie who is inspiring so many people to try felting, wet or dry.

______________________

Off topic, I was starting to suspect that we would never get spring. (Someone was hogging it!!!) Well I think it may be arriving, I saw scilla, crocus and lungwort in the front garden!  The weeping pussy willow even has kitten(?) on it! There is No sign of the tree migration yet, but any day now I’m sure! We even have a new side-door-rain-cover, which we found at Ikea. Here are a few shots to inspire you, in case you are still waiting for spring too. Soon we can all set up our outdoor studios, wash fleeces, and have fun!!! Happy felting!!

4.1-4.3)

scilla excaped my garden and are attacking the nabours lawn, white crocus and blue and pink Lungwort4.1- The Scilla has escaped the flowerbed and attacked the Nabors grass! A single white crocus.

Purple crocus and close up4.2-The purple Crocus are coming up. Part of the front bed and a close up. note the aggressive flower attacking that leaf!

a portable forest is a bunch of trees in pots. unfortuantly the rabbit has been nibbleing over the winter and i am unsure if my horse chestnuts and one of the poplars will make it.4.3- the portable forest awaiting the beginning of the migration. The weeping pussy willow has had kittens!, the new sun shade by the side door(the garden bench will get moved back on the weekend).

Another book resist shape sample

Another book resist shape sample

Comments 8 comments

This is the shape I am currently working on. It started as half circles with a section flattened so I could tape them together the other way around.a resist shape made out of flour underlay

I have a flower shape in my head.

The same resist with green wool wrapped around and wet

I didn’t get very far before life interfered again. We had all the snow I showed you last time melt, and then another dump of snow and melt. Now the scillas are out.

Scilla's blooming in the garden

 

Sometimes, when I think about the cuts I am planning, I think it will work, and then other times, I think no, that’s not going to work at all. Then, I started thinking about how to figure it out. The best way for me to do that is to write out how to do it. Then I had to sort out what would be the best way to try it out without having to actually make it.

I figured out a good way to model the shapes and wrote that out, but now I have to do a trial run to see if it works and if I missed anything.

paper patten shape

It mostly worked the way I think it will, but I have another idea I am thinking about that may work better. Thinking is as far as I have gotten with that.

So far, I think the online class will be a 3-week class, with several weeks of after-class help access. How long is normal for after-class access?

 

 

Two samples finished and some Canadian Weather

Two samples finished and some Canadian Weather

Comments 14 comments

Before talking about felt, I just wanted to share with our friends who have mild winters. It is March here in Central Canada, and there is very little snow left. But as I said, it’s March, and March is a fickle month.  This is what I woke up to last Saturday.

15cm of snow on a table March 29 snowfall.

Followed by freezing rain overnight Sunday.

ski powl braking through freezing rain on top of snow. March 30, freezing rain on top of snow.

Do not be feeling sorry for me. This is fairly normal here. We expect it, but I am envious of you sitting out in your gardens enjoying the spring flowers.

Now some felt. I finished up the pink sample for the book-resist workshop. I finished the pages 2 different ways just to show them. I think it might look nice with a light inside.

         pink, round book resist with fat and flat fins. pink, round resist closed end.

I made a second sample using a football shape. It is smaller.

football shaped book resist

The resist was fiddley to get out because I didn’t want a hole in it. So, didn’t want to cut a hole in the end.

football shaped resist with gold fibre on it and hole cut to take resit out.

After removing the resist, I sewed up the hole.

whole sewn up after removing the resist. Stitching up the hole
stitching after finishing the felting and fulling. Stitching after fulling.

Here is how it looks finished. I am really pleased with it. The stitching was resistant to being pulled out, but I did get it out.

finished piece

I may have to make another one.   I may just have to stitch on this one. I have the wool ready for the next sample. I hope to have it done for you to see next time.

A little Progress on the Workshop and Some Nice Yarn.

A little Progress on the Workshop and Some Nice Yarn.

Comments 13 comments

I have finished the first draft of the resist workshop. 6 pages, and I haven’t added any pictures yet. I printed it out, and I am working on the first sample. I will add notes to the draft and add in anything I missed. The first sample is a circle resist.

stack of wool resists
All stacked and ready to go
stack of resists and rubbing tool
Time to start rubbing

That is how far I got, one set of all the surfaces rubbed. I am going to have to find my studio microwave and set it up so I can reheat these when I get back to them.

 

The only other fibery thing I have done lately is spin on my drop spindle. I do this mostly when I go to guild socials. It’s a nice, portable way to work.

Here are some balls I made earlier,

 

The dark pink has some silk in it, I think it came from Louet a long time ago.  The light blue and purple is from a batt I bought at a fiber show. The other three I made on my blending board. They are meino and sari silk. I like the pops of colour and slight slubbiness it gives the yarn.

Now, I am working on a sample pack from World of Wool. I got it last year. I am just getting to it now. They no longer sell this wool. It is Merino and Stelina (metallic-coated nylon). The Stelina is very sparlkely.

                       

 

I did the yellow first, mostly for a change. I don’t do much yellow. It is hard to get the sparkle with the camera but there is lots of it.  As usual, I found it stuck to several things when I pulled my laundry out of the dryer. It really does get everywhere.

That’s it for my fiberiness for the last little while. I hope everyone is coming out of the winter blues and into the joys of spring. I am looking forward to being able to sit in the garden, in the sun and enjoy my felting and fibers among the flowers and bird song.

Working on new workshop samples

Working on new workshop samples

Comments 9 comments

When teaching my vessels workshop a few weeks ago, I was showing the class pictures and talking about some more advanced vessels. They expressed an interest in all of them but especially in the book resist vessels. It got me thinking and now I am planning to give an intermediate vessel workshop later in the year, or maybe the new year, depending on scheduling.

At this point, my plan is to make 3 samples. That will help me write down the order and figure out how to teach it. I need to work out the materials list and timing, as well as how to teach it. Making them will also help me think of where things might go wrong.

I know there will have to be a prerequisite of having made at least one item, and preferably 2 or more items over a resist.

I plan on 3 different vessels. The first is a simple 6-sided circle pot.

 

The second one is more oval shaped vessel, I cut down the paper template from the circle so they will be about the same height when done.

And the last has an “odd” shape, again I used the half circle from the circle to draw the new shape to keep them about the same size.

As with most best laid plans, I discovered all I had for tape was narrow painters tape. So I will have to head to the store for some wide, strong tape that will hopefully stay stuck through the wet process of making a vessel.  In the meantime, I think I will start writing the instruction so I can jot down additions as I go.  I am not sure how long it will take to do all that. If I want to teach it in the fall through my guild, I will need to get the proposal in when the call for workshops goes out in the spring.

 

Auditioning Fabrics

Auditioning Fabrics

Comments 16 comments

I’m always buying second hand fabric to use in felt-making. Mostly scarves but occasionally garments or just pieces of fabric, almost always from charity shops. Much of the time, I have a good idea of how the fabric will felt. But sometimes I really don’t know, either because it’s unusual in some way or because I’m not sure what it’s made of.

This week I tried out (or ‘auditioned’) four such fabrics, so here’s what I found.

Firstly, this soft rather loose-weave fabric I found in the British Red Cross shop in Canterbury.

Large soft scarf laid out
Close up of fabric

The ‘prickle test’: I touched it lightly to my neck and it prickled so I concluded it contained at least some wool. I have an annoyingly sensitive skin that can’t wear even the softest wool so this prickle is a good sign. It’s a big scarf and I really like the pattern so I bought it, even though it was a bit more than I’d normally pay. I could imagine using it in a tree picture like this one I talked out in a previous blog.

I cut off a very miserly small strip then decided to make it even smaller – a 5 x 5 cm square (2 x 2 inches) – I just wanted to see if it felted without wasting any. I had a tiny amount of miscellaneous white carded batt loitering on the side of my felting table so I used that to felt it.

As you see, it felted really well so I set up a bigger strip to make some cards. 

Then I decided not to get ahead of myself so put that on one side to pick up later and got on to fabric number two.

This flowery mesh fabric was from a scarf I bought a while ago. I think I bought it in Faversham Hospices of Hope.

I’ve used fabric similar to this to make barnacles on felt shells before, though it had a smaller woven pattern. I’ve no idea what either fabric is made from.

Barnacles added to a felted oyster shell using a similar fabric

This time I decided to make a slightly larger sample I could use to make cards, assuming it felted OK. Sometimes I just throw caution to the wind!

I laid it on a piece of the merino & silk prefelt I use for my printed felt cards and felted it.

Ready to felt (left) and felted (right)

It felted nicely. The mesh didn’t bed into the wool as much as I’d expected, so it’s more textured between the flowers, which was interesting.  I will cut this into four strips and print something on the plain half to make cards like the ones I’ve shown in the next section.

I decided I liked the idea of a larger sample for cards rather than the tiny sample I can’t use. 

So, here is fabric three.

I bought this a couple of weeks ago in Yorkshire Cancer Research in Ilkley. It feels like it might be a very sheer silk but there’s no label and I’m not sure. Hand rolled hems are often an indication of silk but this has machined hems.  I love the pattern and it didn’t cost too much so I decided to take a chance.

Irritatingly, I cut the silk a bit too small for the prefelt rectangle offcut I was using so I popped a second small strip on the end hoping it would make that end useable.

It felted really easily and well, so I’m pretty sure it is indeed a sheer silk.  I can see lots of uses for this as it has such a ‘coastal’ pattern. Also, I think the join worked OK.

It’s similar to another scarf I’ve used recently for pictures and cards, so I’m very happy.  One of the drawbacks of using second hand scarves is that you can’t go and buy more of the same if you decide you really like it.

A similar scarf I’ve used in previous pictures and cards

And finally, a large, fairly open weave, 100% wool scarf I bought in a Pilgrim’s Hospice shop in Whitstable. No need for the prickle test (though it would undoubtedly have passed) as it still has its label.

I dithered over this one even though it wasn’t expensive. I just wasn’t sure I’d use that much brown. It’s also quite bulky and I’m short of storage space. However, I decided I could use the brown for beach pebbles on pictures and the animal print sections won me over. I love a bit of animal print.

Wool fabric laid out on prefelt (left) and after felting (right). It doesn’t look much different here though, felted, it’s shrunk by about 30%

Actually, I really like the result, more than I expected for some reason. I find that wool fabric felts really evenly – not surprisingly, I suppose. The fabric shrinks with the prefelt rather than rouching like silk does. I will use this sample piece for cards but I’m not sure what I’ll use the rest of the scarf for.  It definitely reminds me of an animal’s fur but I’m not sure quite what animal. 

Well, all four fabrics passed the auditions with flying colours. They all felted well. I can immediately see how I’ll use the first (wool mix?) one and the sheer silk.  I’ll mentally ‘file’ the other two for use at some point in the future.

I love looking out for second-hand fabrics. You never know what you’ll find and what you might be able to do with them. A delicious pre-loved scarf always feels to me like some kind of exciting unearthed treasure.

Wrestling with the horns of a dilemma – Art Yarn!

Wrestling with the horns of a dilemma – Art Yarn!

Comments 22 comments

For a long time, I have been promising myself that I would take a workshop to get some sort of grip on how to use a spinning wheel.  My friend Trish Kerr runs Irish Alpaca Yarns and she has for a long time been offering me a space on one of her spinning workshops – the stars never aligned as, invariably I was busy on the day.  Then, in December, the offer was once again made and, I was actually free!  The beautiful venue was not far away, Cornstown House (https://cornstownhouse.ie/) which was not far away from me.  Happy days!  Unfortunately there was a huge storm the night before but, despite fallen trees, we awoke to a clear bright day and I negotiated my way to the venue.

We were spinning using alpaca fibre.  I hadn’t realised it until then but some people who have an allergy to wool fibre can wear alpaca.  The irritant in wool apparently is the scales and alpaca does not have scales.

There were 5 students and some had previous experience.  Luckily Trish is an amazing teacher. I had warned her that, given my hideous coordination when learning something new, that this could put a serious strain on our friendship.  She laughed it off.  Trish has great patience which she got to draw on in bucket loads when it came to teaching yours truly!

We were working off Louet wheels which she supplied.  She is quite an expert on the older more traditional wheels too, and she was able to offer good advice on how to get an old wheel which a student had brought, back working again.

  • A traditional wheel one of the students brought in for some advice
  • What a beauty, owned I think by our host Fionnuala
  • All she wanted were cuddles

Trish got us all set up and was very attentive throughout the morning.   The first skill we worked on was treadling, as a first timer it took a lot of effort but after a while I had the wheel moving in a clockwise direction.  She set us up with alpaca fibre and soon we were all spinning.  Some (by this I mean most) much better than yours truly here.  But I was having fun.

Trish started us all off drafting setting us up with Alpaca yarn

The morning flew and we stopped for a delicious lunch and tour of the farm, both supplied by our most gracious hosts, Fionnuala and Dominic.  The tour was great fun, featuring  lots of Alpacas, some rare breed sheep (including one that loved to be patted, a cow and donkeys.  The farm offers Alpaca Trekking and workshops along with other events. When I explained that I primarily was a feltmaker and showed an interest in the Teeswater, Dominic disappeared for a few minutes and arrived back with some raw fleece for me to play with when I got home.

  • I had to include this photo. The pumpkin was still going strong!
  • She just wanted cuddles
  • Chatting up the girls!
  • The donkeys were very friendly, and happy out if you had a carrot in hand!
  • Just look at that pretty face!
  • What a beauty!
  • Those eyes!

When we returned from our tour, Trish gave us a presentation on alpaca fleeces which was very interesting.

  • So soft and of course no lanolin!
  • Trish showed us what to expect from a quality fleece

We plied our yarn in the afternoon.  Now that I had ‘mastered’ the clockwise, introducing the ‘counter-clockwise’ was, let’s say, interesting.  This is what I produced.  It is, I believe, kindly referred to as ‘Art Yarn’.  Now, I am in the horns of a dilemma.  I want to spin more but I don’t want to ever spin a nice even ply.  The general consensus in the room was that once you perfect the spin you can’t return to the Art Yarn.  Now, while I appreciate that at my learning speed, perfection is a long way down the road.  I don’t want to get there but I would like to spin more art yard and, if I’m honest, I would love a new toy in a spinning wheel.  Any ideas?

My plied alpaca art yarn

I played with the Teeswater when I got home.  Here is the result:

  • Scouring the teeswater
  • Final view
  • another view,lit by LED
  • A view of my experiment with Teeswater

Last year, I wrote up a number of posts about various dyeing  workshops I had attended.  In one I dyed a lot of fabric samples and wondered what I should do with them.  I think it may have been Ruth who suggested that I could think about stitching into some.  I have never embroidered by hand before but decided to give it a try over Christmas.  Here is my first effort.  I was inspired by a photo online.  Once completed, I padded it with some cotton batting and backed it with linen.  I might frame it  at some stage but I will need to find a suitable frame.

Using the dyed fabric samples, I tried my hand at embroidery over Christmas

I totally enjoyed my day spinning, even though I was pretty dreadful at it. But I love the result and for once, I really don’t want to improve greatly at this. Long live Art Yarn!

Do you agree? Any hints and tips on how I can retain my current standard? All suggestions will be very gratefully taken on board. I’m just looking for an excuse to buy a wheel.

Making a spindle case mark 1 continued

Making a spindle case mark 1 continued

Comments 11 comments

Last time I was telling you about a spindle case I was working on. It is here if you missed it making-a-spindle-case-mark-1

last time I had added all the wool so now it was time for some decorations. I grabbed some of my handspun and covered the case in a random pattern all over, remembering to go under the flap and to leave some sticking out to wrap around so it is continuous on the other side.

The other side. I didn’t do the ends because they would be folded. I did cover all the yarn with a very very thin layer of the background wool as I wanted it to adhere without too much effort.

I gave everything a good rubbing until it was starting to shrink and the yarn was well stuck and then rolled it.  I got it back down to 12 inches in length but the other way didn’t want to shrink up.

I rolled it more and harder in that direction. I heated it and rolled it in my hand but it didn’t want to go where I wanted it. I thought I would try rinsing it, and throwing it in the sink and shocking it with hot and cold water. Fortunately, that did it. The next step would have been putting it aside for a few days and trying again. I do know from experience that letting something rest often works. But I didn’t want to wait.

Here it is finished. It looks ok. I am not sure I like the accordion folds on the ends. I have never been good at them, they never look sharp like I see others.  The next one may get different ends. Overall the look is good but it is not stiff enough.

spindle case closed

spindle case open

 

end of spindle case

Here it is with 3 different size spindles in it. I am using the clip to keep it open. the small one is very loose in it. The medium one is a fairly good fit and the large one will not fit at all.

felt spindle case with spindle
spindle case with small spindle

spindle bag with spindle
spindle case with medium spindle

spindle outside case for size
Medium spindle outside case for size.

Large spindle not fitting in bag
Large spindle not fitting spindle case

Different wool might be better. I used Merino because it is what I have the most of. Coriedale might be enough but maybe Finnish or Bergshef.  I also think it needs to be thicker as well as stiffer. It doesn’t feel like it would be very protective against bumps and knocks. What are your thoughts on improvements?

Making a spindle case mark 1

Making a spindle case mark 1

Comments 10 comments

I saw this picture that is for a workshop by Marti Csille at the  https://giftofthelambs.hu/

There is no way I can get there but I thought a felt spindle case would be a nice thing to have. I have a whole afternoon when I am not supposed to be doing something,  I will make myself one.

12 inch finished length should be good but how big around? I didn’t have a handy spindle but I did have a couple of whorls waiting for shafts. I had to use string to measure it as I can never find a sewing tape when I need one.

I am going to use Merino so I will expect a 30% shrinkage. I added 50% to the measurements, then I added some points on the end so I could fold them in. I thought that looked nice and if needed you push them out and stuff extra wool into them.

I added an extra piece of underlay resist for the flap to close it.  I was going to add lone felt ropes to close it but although I like the way that looks I find them a nuisance to use. 2 or 3 button closures should work.

Next was adding some wool. I didn’t measure out how much. I just added sool until it felt right. I will have to weigh it when it’s dry here is the flap side laid out.

I will get you the rest next time. I ran out of time to tell you more. I was selling for Jan and myself at the Chestervill spin-in and forgot until midweek I had a wet felted flower class on Sunday. No in-progress pictures of that but I have a nice group shot of the end of class I will share with you.