ahhh i love this sort of thing! little projects that take next to no time, and next to no skill! ;)
but they still give you that wonderful feeling of accomplishment...
so this evening i grabbed a few minutes to try making a felt ball..
dead simple -
-take some carded wool fleece (roving?) like people use to spin yarn, and gently pluck bits of it off (keep your hands a wee way apart to avoid tearing the fibres)
-make a tiny ball out of one piece, then start randomly wrapping more pieces around forming a bigger ball shape..
-keep going until your ball is around 1/3rd bigger than you want the finished one to be
- take some coloured 100% handwash wool, and wrap it tightly around your fleece ball in all different directions, trying to keep a round shape, but don't fret if it looks a bit off..
now the *magical* part..
- take a bowl of hot water (the hotter the better! use rubber gloves if you're a softie like me) with a squidge of liquid soap or dishwashing liquid in it, and very gently dunk your wool ball into it, be warned, it'll probably shrink up quite a bit immediately!
- now you very gently start patting the ball, trying to keep it nice & round, gently squeezing it so that the fibres start to bind together..
- keep working at it, gradually getting stronger & stronger, maybe starting to roll it around in your hands.. you can keep dunking it in the hot water if it starts to cool..
- keep going until it starts to firm up quite a bit, maybe give it a good blast under a cold tap (see why the process does what is called 'shocking' the wool?! lol), keep rolling & squeezing and dunking it in the hot water, until you have a tight, firm, but still slightly squishy, felt ball!
-give it a rinse & squeeze in some fresh cold water, then let it dry out.. (it'll take a while to dry entirely, but that doesn't mean you can't play with it! ;-) )
long-winded instructions, but it really is very fast! :-D
and best of all you get a one-of-a-kind, all natural, cool little ball to play with!
note to self - this one used roughly 15cm of natural wool from Forest Folk, plus some Wool Co 'Blues', came out approx. the size of a golf ball, started about 1cm bigger all around.. :-)
edited to add better pic..
so this evening i grabbed a few minutes to try making a felt ball..
dead simple --take some carded wool fleece (roving?) like people use to spin yarn, and gently pluck bits of it off (keep your hands a wee way apart to avoid tearing the fibres)
-make a tiny ball out of one piece, then start randomly wrapping more pieces around forming a bigger ball shape..
-keep going until your ball is around 1/3rd bigger than you want the finished one to be
- take some coloured 100% handwash wool, and wrap it tightly around your fleece ball in all different directions, trying to keep a round shape, but don't fret if it looks a bit off..
now the *magical* part..
- take a bowl of hot water (the hotter the better! use rubber gloves if you're a softie like me) with a squidge of liquid soap or dishwashing liquid in it, and very gently dunk your wool ball into it, be warned, it'll probably shrink up quite a bit immediately!
- now you very gently start patting the ball, trying to keep it nice & round, gently squeezing it so that the fibres start to bind together..
- keep working at it, gradually getting stronger & stronger, maybe starting to roll it around in your hands.. you can keep dunking it in the hot water if it starts to cool..
- keep going until it starts to firm up quite a bit, maybe give it a good blast under a cold tap (see why the process does what is called 'shocking' the wool?! lol), keep rolling & squeezing and dunking it in the hot water, until you have a tight, firm, but still slightly squishy, felt ball!
-give it a rinse & squeeze in some fresh cold water, then let it dry out.. (it'll take a while to dry entirely, but that doesn't mean you can't play with it! ;-) )
long-winded instructions, but it really is very fast! :-D
and best of all you get a one-of-a-kind, all natural, cool little ball to play with!
note to self - this one used roughly 15cm of natural wool from Forest Folk, plus some Wool Co 'Blues', came out approx. the size of a golf ball, started about 1cm bigger all around.. :-)
edited to add better pic..
4 comments:
Very cool. Where did you get your roving from?
thanks! it was really fun to make :-) i got the roving from our steiner playgroup shop, but i'm pretty sure you can get it on TM..? lou will know better :D
THanks. Actually I think Murrrrrr sells it. Is it the same as slivers? I am so not up on the spinning lingo obviously
yeah i think it's the same.. i'm not too flash with the jargon either lol!
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