Learning How To Needle Felt- Basic Felting Introduction

If you have not tried needle felting, I highly recommend it.  It is so much fun. You can make animal figures angels, all kinds of sculptural shapes. You can also make lots of other things like the bowls I showed you in my last post.

  These were made with basic needle felting methods.  The next article in this series will have the instructions for them.


First, let me say, needle felting is  really pretty simple.  You have very simple tools, and materials.  Felting needles, and  a foam mat of some kind  to keep you from stabbing yourself, and to support your work as you felt.

You also need a material that will felt like wool or similar animal fibers.  Usually wool is the standard material for felting.

It is helpful to have an understanding of basic felting to see how it works.  Wool fiber has barbs in it that you cannot see. When you felt, you are locking the barbs together and once they lock, it is permanent.

If you have ever felted ( hopelessly shrunk)  your favorite wool sweater or socks in the washer, you know just how permanent it is.

There are various ways to make felt. We are going to be doing what is called dry  felting, or needle felting.

If you are new to needle felting, I would recommend you purchase a how to  book unless you have someone who can teach you.  I like Beginner's Guide to Needle Felting by Susanna Wallis.

To felt, you are going to need felting needles. They are sharp barbed metal tools.  You will need to purchase more than one,  as they will break frequently especially when you are learning .

I use a felting tool which is a holder that hold three or four needles at a time.  It makes the project go much faster and saves on your hands and wrists.  I use the Clover Felting Needle Tool


Needles also come in different sizes from finer to larger. You might want to experiment with different sizes. I use large needles for my bowls because it goes faster. I am impatient, I have to admit.

If you don't have any wool or supplies, you might want to get a Felting Starter Kit that has everything in it.  That way, you won't have lot invested at first until you try it out.

A kit has the needles, wool, and a small mat.  Make sure you pick up a couple extra needles, if the kit only has one.

If you are going to try a bow, here is the materials list.

Felting needles- Medium or large size
Wool  -at  least 2 ounces.  ( How much you use for a bowl, will depend on the size- 2 oz. will make a small starter bowl.  I use up to 8 ounces in some of my larger bowls.)
Corridale is a good basic wool for this project.
If you want to embellish your bowl, you can also use mohair fiber blends, pure mohair, and other silk and wool blends in small amounts for the final layer.
A working mat of foam. It can be a soft styrofoam, or a softer foam like you would have in a seat cushion. You might have something lying around the house that you can use. If you use soft foam, it should be fairly thick so you don't stab yourself. It hurts.

Next time---
Drumroll please......
How to make the bowls.

Introducing My Needle Felted Bowls

I have gotten into making felted bowls.
Ta Da- Here they are photographed on my Coast of Maine Lichen covered granite rocks.
I got started making them one day on a whim. The first one I did was about 18 inches around and really colorful.  I wish I had saved a picture of it. I ended up selling it when a friend  asked it if she could buy it. 
The ones here in the photo are about 8 inches for the large one, 5 inches for the middle one, and 4 inches for the smaller one.  The middle one was made by my friend Eileen, when we got together to learn how to make them one day last winter.

I have to say it is very addicting.  People who see them often ask me to teach them how to do it.  I have shown lots of  non fiber types how to make them too. They are addicting to make for artist types, to say the least.

I am proud to say, I invented the ones I make myself.
I have seen lots of knitted or crocheted and felted bowls, but none like mine. I imagine there are people making them like I am, but I have just never come across any.

I like needle felting, but am not into gnomes and all the animals and things I see made with felt. I like things that are practical and usable like- uh, bowls.

They can be used for all kind of things. I use mine for rings, change, and all kinds of little things on the windowsill, and in the bedrooms. I also love to put dried flowers in them, or even real flowers. With the real flowers I insert a glass jar or bowl inside the felted one that you can't see and put the water in there.

The bowls are lovely, and if you make one, you will have them all over the house.
I use lots of leftover fiber bits and blends including silk, wool, even angora. Some things go in better than others. Wool is the best and wool blends. the angora tends to sit on as a surface decoration more. I like the effect and it gives the bowls a lot of luster and character.

I don't use a pattern for my bowls or a form. I just shape them as I go adding more colorful layers inside and out as I near the end of the process. I like to make my bowls fat. Unless you are willing to work at them a really long time, they do tend to be thicker than crocheted felt bowls that are washed in the washing machine.

They are also not as tightly felted. I love the fact that you can shape them like pottery as you work.
I am putting them here today as I wanted to show them to you. 

Later this week, I will take some pictures of the steps I use to make them and post them on the site so you can try to do one yourself.

I hope you have some fiber fun this week,
Debbie

Where To Buy Purple Rose Fiber Yarns

As of this writing, I am not selling yarn in shops any longer.
I have limited time available for dyeing and getting it out there to wherever you are.

I do love dyeing yarn, and want to keep at it a bit, so for now-
My yarns are exclusively available through Etsy at   http://purplerosefiber.etsy.com

Etsy Buy Handmade purplerosefiber

Ah Spring-Dangerous Season For Handspinners

Spring is approaching in the northeast US.  I am starting to get notices from farms in our area of sheep shearing days, and the fiber fairs are not far off.

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One particular farm here in Coastal Maine sent me an email today of their shearing day coming up in a few weeks. I have gone to this and it is a lot of fun. You can help move the sheep into the pens for shearing and pick your fleece as it is being taken off the sheep. You can also help skirt the fleeces out as they come off on the table before they are rolled up. In this process, the short fibers and those covered with manure on the edges are pulled off and discarded, leaving only the prime beautiful fleece to be purchased by some addicted hand spinner like myself.

It is really exciting to watch the fleece coming off the sheep, and examine it at a respectful distance for crimp, color, luster, cleanliness, and all the other things a spinner looks for. The shearer is fast, and the poor sheep doesn't really know what happened until it is over. They shearers are super skilled and can clip around all those delicate areas without injury to the animal. The fleece comes off all in one piece.  I am always amazed watching the process. 

You can choose your fleece or fleeces for the seriously addicted, as they come off the animal.
That is, you can if you are fast enough.  I often wait too long and watch someone snatch up the one I have my eye on.
 Not to worry though, as there are plenty more coming along. Grey, chocolate, various shades of brown, and white- colors of fawn and apricot.  The beautiful clean fleeces from covered or well cared for sheep are a delight to behold.

I love the smell.  It is a smell of lanolin and manure. Why I like it, I am not sure as I suppose many would find it unpleasant. I enjoy the feeling of the lanolin on my hands after touching the fiber.

Each fleece has it's potential to be washed, possibly dyed, spun, and then knitted, crocheted or woven into wonderful and practical  things.

I think what really keeps me coming back for this year after year is the potential at the start of a new project or venture.  It is all possibility.  The reality that there are seven other fleeces in the closet, or stacked on the porch that still need to be spun does not really enter ones mind.  The potential for these new and wonderful fresh piles of fiber to become something beautiful overwhelms all sense of practicality.

My thrifty Yankee spirit is pleased, that for a few dollars I can have such a pile of possibility in my grasp.

When I get my fleece home, I start the process of steps to prepare it for spinning. Hopefully I have only bought one as they can weigh several pounds. Sometimes it is three or four, and I only really can spin one or two a year. If you can do any math at all, you can see what a problem is building here. This leads to the saying that the one who dies with the most fiber wins.  At this stage of the project though, that is of no concern. Trying to talk sense into me will do no good. I have gone over the edge, and will not be talked out of my folly.

I love to wash the locks gently in small quantities, and lie them in baskets to dry on my deck in the warm spring air.  I love to see the color change as the barn dirt and manure are soaked out and a yellow fleece suddenly turns to snow white. On one or two days in spring, I usually dye up a bunch of these gently washed  locks and spend many days admiring all the pretty colors as they dry in baskets around the house. The possibilites are endless at this point.

I am not one to dye my wool with a project in mind. I usually dye it as the mood strikes me in my favorite colors and then decide what I will use it for.

Sadly, I have to admit that once I get to this step, it often ends up in the closet unless I send it off to be carded by a professional. Carding, for you non hand spinners is the process of combing that prepares the fiber so that it can be spun easily on the spinning wheel into yarn. It is also the time when the colors can be mixed as much or as little as you like to make all kinds of color blends that end up in the finished  yarn.

Many hand spinners now days like to buy their fiber prepared, dyed, and ready to spin. I  can appreciate this, as the process of preparing the wool from start to finish is labor intensive. I myself, would not want to miss this spring ritual that has become a delight  that I look forward to year after year.
(photo courtesty of photobucket/ user whitestone 25)

Dye Yarn With Easter Egg Dyes

The next time you are dyeing your Easter eggs, consider using the leftovers to dye a skein of yarn. This recipe works with any wool yarn that is made of protein.  The yarns I dyed have been  very permanent and Color fast. I did my first skein in 2006. No fading yet.  I can't say over the long term how much they could fade. Since I have seen no change in 5 years from these original yarns,  I am not too concerned about it.   It is loads of fun, and you will have yarn in those lovely Easter Colors we all love so much.

The first time I tried this it was on a whim. I thought what if I could dye with this? I did and I really got my money's worth out of my Easter Egg dyes.
I ended up having so much fun, I went out after Easter buying up all the sale packets of dye.  I dyed about 5 skeins with it using all the colors, and my microwave. The yarn came out so pretty and I used it in projects for kids. The colors were perfect for them and non toxic all the way. They were light baby colors when they came out. Later, when I went out and bought  more packets, I got stronger colors. I used a bit less water, and in some cases two tabs. 
Here is the way I did it.

After I was done using all those little cups of dye, I added about a 1/4 cup of vinegar to each one.  I used coffee cups by the way.  
I soaked my wool in warm water with a cup or vinegar for about 20 minutes and then took most of  the excess moisture out with a towel. This helps it to accept the dye better.
I draped the yarn into the different cups and arranged it on my microwave plate inside the microwave so I was using all the cups of dye at the same time.
I let it sit for a few minutes to let some of the dye run up into the white part between the cups.
I microwaved it for about 5 minutes.

The yarns above came out differently and I think it was the fiber because the strength was about the same. They were both very pretty when dry.

I took the yarn out, cooled it, and rinsed it gently in warm water with a bit of dish detergent added.

That's it. Nothing to it.
If you have some leftover wool yarn sitting around the house in white or a very light color try this.
You can use the skeins as I did, or you can put individual balls in the dye cups. If you use balls of yarn, they will be white in the middle and get darker as they go out to the edge.  Keep the balls small and wound loosely. 
You will feel so thrifty and have fun seeing the colors come out.

This was a later attempt with little water, and a pale pink yarn. It came out very nice.

Kool Aid Dyed Yarns- Have Some Fun

 Kool Aid Yarn Dying 
It is really cool
If you want to try yarn dyeing, using  Kool Aid is a great way to start. Kool Aid yarn dyeing  is surprisingly permanent, can yield some lovely colors, and is lots of fun. Kool Aid is great for dyeing because the whole process is non toxic, and only use simple household items you most likely already have. Most of us have some Kool Aid around. Just make sure it is the unsweetened kind in the small packets.  It is so much fun. If you have kids, they love doing it.  You just have to try it.

Kool Aid yarn dyeing works best for protein fibers which includes any animal fiber. Kool Aid is naturally acidic so they are perfect for this use.  The colors are surprisingly pretty, and permanent. I made a pair of angora mittens for my daughter when she was younger with cherry Cool Aid. The color was a lovely shade or warm cherry pink.  Even after several snow men, and outdoor play, the mittens are still just as nice and pink as ever. 
Tips To Know Before You Get Started

Make sure your yarn is in a skein. It should be tied in at least 4 places around the skein so it does not tangle in the pot. Keep the ties  loose so the dye can work around them unless you want lighter yarn there.
Move the yarns around carefully in the pot. Don't stir, or swish too much. Use a gentle simmer. The same goes for the rinse. No harsh changes in temperature while rinsing.  No rubbing. Just soaking, and if necessary a gentle swirl or two.  All of this will help your yarns keep from getting hopelessly tangled, and from felting.

If you are dyeing multiple skeins and want them to match, you will have to dye them all at the same time.

What You Will Need For Kool Aid Yarn Dyeing
For this recipe, we will use the stove and pots to dip or simmer the skeins.

Get Ready To Dye
Have Ready
Yarn soaked in 1/2 gallon of  warm water with 1 cup of white vinegar added  for  30 minutes. Make sure it is a protein fiber like wool or any other animal fiber
Large Cooking Pots- one for each color of Kool Aid
Water -  two quarts will cover a skein of sock wool in most cases for immersion dyeing.
White vinegar
Kool Aid- the small unsweetened packets. Use up to two for each skein dyed depending on how strong of a color you want.
A large  Spoon or a wooden dowel- The dowel can be used to loop the skeins over if you are dipping.  Your yarn  can be easily rotated around the dowel in such a way that the section you wish to dye next  hangs down  for the next dip into the pot. It is easier to control and keep the yarns neat with this method, and you can dye more than one skein at a time if you want.
Rubber Gloves
A colander to drain the yarn is helpful after it is dyed.  


Generally, things used for dying are not used again in the kitchen. However, with Kool Aid this is not necessary.  Another reason to Kool Aid Dye.


  Instructions For Mixing Your Colors
One quart of water to one packet of dye. Once you learn the process, you can experiment with more water or more Kool Aid to change the depth of the shade. I generally use at least two quarts per pot so the yarn is covered well. For two quarts of water, you will use two packets of Kool Aid powder.
Add 1/2 cup of white vinegar to each quart of water you use.  You can use your soaking water for this to save on the vinegar.
You want to have enough liquid in your pot to cover you fiber if you want a uniform color. For dip dyeing it does not matter.  



Directions For A Uniform Color Yarn
This is called immersion dyeing.  You will end up with a yarn all one color.

Add at least two quarts of water, two packets of Kool Aid, and 1 cup vinegar to your pot(1/2 cup per quart).  If two quarts will not be  enough to cover your skein, or if you are dyeing more than one, multiply the recipe so it covers all your yarn in the pot.  You want  the yarn free to move in the pot, and not crowded so it will dye evenly.
1. heat the water with the Kool Aid and vinegar added to a simmer-make sure it is stirred well and all the Kool Aid is mixed in evenly.
2. add your wet pre-soaked skeins

3.Simmer the fiber at a low temperature for about 30 minutes. Do not boil. If you are not doing any more dyeing, let it cool in the pot. Otherwise, take it out and let it cool to warm. Soak it in warm water about the same temperature as the yarn. Do not agitate the yarn while you are rinsing it.  Rinse until the water runs clear.


Directions For a Multi Colored Yarn
This is my favorite because it really lets you have fun dipping and sloshing you yarn into different colors.

You will need
A Pot for each color with one quart water, one cup white vinegar, and one packet Kool Aid
Yarn that has been soaked in the vinegar and warm water mixture for 30 minutes or more. 
Utensils and gloves to hold the yarn for dipping. I use a stick to drape the yarn over and move it around as I go from pot to pot.

Take your wet, but not dripping yarn and drape it in the pots. If you put a third in you will end up with at least three colors. Leave it in there until it is just a tiny bit darker than the color you want, take it out, and dip another end in another pot.
With this method, you don't need to leave the yarn in for the entire 30 minutes in each pot. I usually try to do at least 7 to 10  minutes to make sure the yarn sets. Since you have pre-soaked the yarn in vinegar before dying, it should be color fast after just a few minutes time.  I also increase the vinegar slightly to make sure it takes the color up really well. I have never had a problem using this method with colorfastness.

Kool Aid yarn dyeing is so much fun. You can dip as much as you want. You can leave some white between colors. You can put one end of the yarn in one pot and the other in a second pot.  You can dye one end yellow and then dip it red and turn it orange.  There is no end to the variety you can come up with.  It is also called space dyeing.

My Favorite Places To Find Yarn on Line

Where to get yarn.

Well, I will tell you were I like to hang out other than my local shop. I regret to say that I usually don't buy a lot of yarn there. I love to look,and browse. There are luscious yarns in my local yarn shop. It is  eye candy for the knitter, and there is lots to feel and touch there.

Sadly,  I don't buy there. I  love to support the little craft people here and there. Besides, I have a lot of my own yarn. I love to knit my own sock yarns that I dye. They are my favorite colors so they fit me really well.

I love to shop on ebay.com  for bargains.  It is hit and miss. Sometimes I get a yarn or fiber there though that is disappointing. I have learned to be a bit more discriminating, and this works better.
I also really like to shop at String of Pearls.com,  Check out the fiber treasures in the  yarn mine section at String of Pearls. You never know what you might find.
I also love Etsy sellers. Etsy.com
If you have not checked out etsy.com you really have to. There are some beautiful sock yarns available there from the sellers on etsy.
You can look by what was recently posted from the home page.
I have my yarns on there although I have to admit lately I have not been posting
much.  Perhaps this post will inspire me to get going.
My site can be accessed on etsy by clicking this link http://purplerosefiber.etsy.com
I posted a picture of a skein of my Ultra Merino Nylon Hand Dyed Sock Yarn up at the top of the page.
The colors remind me of the sea near my home on the coast.
If you have a favorite place to shop for yarn on line, post it here.