Felting

Let's talk for a moment about one of my other fiber hobbies, felting, specifically wet or flat felting.

Wet felting involves laying layers and layers on animal fibers on each other, then soaking them and squashing, pressing, rolling, and beating them until they form a piece of fabric. Theoretically, thick felted fabric is waterproof and insultating. Theoretically.

So here are a few tips if you decide to enter the wonderful world of beating-the-heck-out-of-a-pile-of-wool-until-it-gives-up:

1. When making warm, soapy water, remember that a shampoo is sudsy. A little goes a long way. Too much means you are scooping piles of soap suds off your workspace while more spill out of the pitiful pile of wool you are abusing. Too little and the wool just laughs at you and refuses to get felty.

2. When covered in aforementioned suds, your partner will laugh at you from the safety of the sofa.

3. The person you are teaching to make felt will have no such soap issues whatsoever.

4. Felty when wet can mean poufy-like-a-pillow when dry. Unless you are the person in #3, for whom felt takes the WYSIWYG path.

5. In some cases, no amount of beating/stomping/rolling/mashing the fiber will cause it to get all nice and solid. Unless you are once again the person in #3, who manages to produce good quality felt with a few twitches and presses and rolls.

6. Abstract felted designs are not appreciated by partner-on-couch, despite the fact that they truly believe a white piece of canvas painted white is art.

7. There is no cure for UGHly.