felt!

Over the last couple of weeks our playgroup craft activity has been rolling wool into felt balls. I often use felt but only ever sheets of felt or pre-rolled felt balls. I've got to say playing with wool has become a little addictive! Our 4 year old is also addicted. This afternoon Lola sat for 2 hours rolling wool into little felt balls. 2 hours!! That's a long time for a little one! In the past I have made pretty garlands with multi-coloured felt balls but last week had this crazy idea that I could make a rug. Crazy, I know!! What am I thinking?! I have lots of black and white wool so I am going to dye the white mustard and string together a black and mustard felt ball floor rug. I have worked out I need 7,500 balls... this afternoon I made 50. This will be a long term project! Do you know how to wet felt? I'm pretty new to the game but thought I might pop up a little 'how to' in case you want to get all crazy too and decide to make 7,500 little balls to string into a rug!!?!

You will need:

wool

bucket of soapy water

*take a small piece of wool, wet in the soapy water and begin to roll in cirular motion

* take another piece of wool and add that to your ball, wet it in the soapy water and keep rolling

* keep adding wool to your ball until you reach the size that you like

* let your felt balls dry then think about the possibilities!

Somethings you could do with your felt balls:

*string them on embriodery thread to make a felt ball garland

* string them together in a grid to make coasters (or a rug!!)

* pop a little bell in the centre when you first start to roll to make a cute little toy for a little person

happy felting!

xx