Needle-felted creations

Now, is anyone reading this a fiber geek (like me)? Because if you aren't, you probably don't even know what needle-felting is. So that's why I'm here, as your genuine geek, to fill you in.

Felting is an ancient art of fibers (wool, llama fiber, etc.) that began in A.D. something. It was sort of invented by accident by a man traveling somewhere on a long journey. So the theory goes, the man put some raw wool in the bottoms of his shoes for comfort (see, humans were wusses even back then!) and upon the end of his trip, he discovered that the wool had formed itself, with a little help from him, into a soft, firm whole. The theory was that the wool had gotten wet with rain, sweat, etc. and with the pressure from his foot, the fibers in the wool had bonded together to create a foot-shaped mat that fit perfectly into the bottom of his shoe. Since it was discovered first, this technique is called true felting, original felting or wet felting.


Needle felting is the same idea, with the fibers of the wool bonding to create a firm piece. But instead of using moisture, you use a very special needle whose bottom half is covered in tiny barbs. For this reason, it's also called dry felting. When you stab the wool, the barbs catch on the microscopic scales that coat each tiny string of wool. Then the strings are driven together by the needle, and the scales on each string rub against each other and catch, thus sticking together two pieces of fiber. And all the steps of this fascinating process are accomplished in one quick jab of the needle. This is why it has to be real, 100 percent wool, because  cotton or anything besides natural fiber doesn't have any scales, and therefore won't bond. From the first moment I started needle felting, I was hooked, and now I make all sorts of awesome stuff. So now, I'll show you some pictures of what I've created.*


*Just a word of warning: the felting needles are incredibly sharp, so just be super-careful when felting your own creations. You can get nasty stabs on the fingers of the hand that isn't holding the needle.

The adorable little penguin I felted just today! I call him Oreo.

This is Comet, the first in my collection of felted llamas. I make them by wrapping 100% wool yarn around a wire frame, and then felting it all together.

And this little sweetheart was a Christmas present for a friend of mine. I forget his name though, unfortunately.



So this is a post about a great hobby for us geeks. Thanks for reading!