Wet Felting

In August, I will be going to Nantucket to teach a wet felting class for kids - making felted balls. My MIL works for the 1800 house, and asked if I would like to teach a few classes this summer. I said sure - and told her I could do a socknitting class for adults, and then a Felted Ball class for kids. Only thing is - I didn't really know how to teach the felted ball class! But I have a friend who does - Elsie up in NH.

This weekend I drove up to see her and learn about the felted ball making process. It really isn't hard at all... just take some wool and soap and hot water, and roll it in your hands. Look at the fun things we made:



I was sitting there, having fun making little beads and balls and stuff - and actually asked Elsie if this was something that kids would want to do for 3 hours... until I looked at my watch - we had been working on this for 2 hours! I didn't realize how fast the time flew. After we were done with making the little balls, the two of us decided that we should figure out how to make a felted pin cushion. After many failed attempts, we gave up and just made one big felted ball and cut it in half - looks to me like a felted geode.... too cool.

Of course, I couldn't make a trip to visit a fiber friend without going to their LYS. The store happened to have the pattern for the adult version of the black baby sweater I made... and we all know how much I wanted to make one of those for myself. And then I found in the corner the stash of Bartlett yarn - and found this beautiful color - Mountain Blue - which is being discontinued. Of course I had to buy it. And start the sweater that night:

I'm almost to the point where you put the sleeves on holders and finish up the body. I'm loving the color of this yarn - blue with a little bit of charcoal spun in. But it is very 'rustic' yarn - rough on the hands. The good news is that the adult sized version is just as much fun to knit as the baby one.