Monday, November 23, 2009

Today was a felting day.
Two felted bars of soap, two nuno felted scarves, the start of some bad ass mittens.

Felting is one of those rare mediums that lies below the radar, sort of one of its most intriguing qualities.
I tend to prefer wet felting with raw wool rather than fulled knitting simply because fulled knitting seems like cheating to me...yes it is still felting but the idea that you are knitting say, a bag, with wool yarn and then throw it in the washing machine just does not have the same gratification for me as taking raw wool and working the hell out of it so that it becomes a solid workable fiber.
Nuno felting I quite enjoy. You take a breathable fiber, such as silk or simple cheese cloth, and felt on top of it so that the fibers travel from one side to the other when it is fulled. This makes for a light weight felt that is perfect for scarves.

Im sure I'll post all sorts of instructions and various things I learn on my felting journey
Today's lesson:
Alpaca is really really soft. Its not as itchy as Merino wool, but it also does not felt as tightly...but we shall see how tight I can get it when I full the mittens.

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