Fibers and Fabrics

Whenever Pete touches an item and wonders what it is made of, I often say, "Felt."

When he seems surprised, my response is, "You just felt it."

BaDumTsss

Seriously, making felt has been on my fiber arts bucket list for many years.

Though I generally have so many projects going, the idea of researching and buying the stuff to make felt moved that item further down the list.

This past week, all the stars aligned to make felt a reality...

I found myself the recipient of a box of wool roving...

And then, my friend Roise, finding herself with unexpected time off, came to visit.

A few years ago, when Roise and I met in the Society for Creative Anachronism we discovered we had many similar interests.

So when she visits, we pull out projects we both want to learn more about and shenanigans ensue.

Roise and her finished felt...

Anyway, Roise had a bit of experience with the felt-making process... and we both had watched videos on the internet. What the heck!

What was the worst thing that could happen? I have a mess to clean up? Eh... whatever... we decided we would try our hand at felt. Some of the roving in the box I had received was not marked. Yet we wanted to make sure we were working only with wool, so first we did a burn test and separated out what was feltable. After that, we gathered our supplies together. I pulled out a couple of towels, some wool roving, and some leftover bubble wrap. Roise had brought roving and dawn detergent with her, as well as some snacks. We poured our favorite beverages. I cleared off the kitchen island counter and warmed up some water. We were ready! We each laid out fluffed wool, then worked in hot soapy water, rolled up the bubble wrap/towel, and rolled it all around. What a wonderful, fun, beautiful, disaster! That first try, we both got thin, wool lace.

My dry wool... four layers... white, red, blue, red...

The see-through first attempt...

So then we went back and reviewed some of the videos to find our errors...

Seems we did not overlap the wool enough.

Lesson learned! Try again!

So my second attempt, I used six layers of only variegated red, and I overlapped the bits of roving. I made a nice thick red wool felt. Good enough to make a fez-type pillbox hat. I am so pleased I've started to figure it out.

Can't see through this...

Roise also did better the second time, making enough thick green felt for a pair of Ottoman shoes.

At the end of the day, Pete came in and saw our results. He touched it and asked, "What did you make?"

At first, he was skeptical when I told him, "Felt."

Though after we explained the process he finally believed me. We all had a good laugh as we talked about the various felt projects we now put on our respective lists.