blind leading the blind.. pt1

here's a wee needle felting tutorial that is hopefully understandable to beginners, since it's written by one!

you'll need some carded wool fleece/roving/silver stuff, and a special felting needle - it's a long, super nasty one with little barbs cut into it!

first take a tuft of fleece.. or several depending on how big your project will be (i'm making a small mushroom) but bare in mind that it will shrink as you felt it AND you are going to be adding more fleece as you go..
roll the fleece into a sausage or ball, squeezing the air out as you go, to create your base shape..
then using your needle, jab it straight in & out (ie not in at 90degrees then out at 65degrees.. apparently this can break the end) in a little line to secure the end of the fleece..
next you jab it all over, shaping it by poking the air out & condensing the wool (aka felting it!)
then you can wrap more fleece around, jabbing it on as you go, to make your shape bigger, or add different colours, or to add bulk in different areas..
as you go you can focus on small areas to tidy up loose fibres & create nice egdes..
part two to come...!