He is my first ever felt project, entirely made by needling. He is made of British Blue Face sheep wool, nothing else. People are always really surprised when I tell them this. Bob is rather firm to touch, so many people assume that he has been filled with something else. Wool is like that. You can choose to work it so it is loose and soft or very tight and hard.
I made Bob about a year ago, I think. I haven't ever taken a course in felting techniques, just studied it from books, so I was rather pleased that I could get the wool to felt at all. I found the needling rather an easy process albeit couple of fingers were punctured! I was working from raw wool, so the process took its time. If you have not tried felting at all, this means that I bought a sheep fleece, washed it, dried it, hand carder the fibres to soft fluff and then attacked it with a hand held needle to make it to felt. Since my first attempt I have done couple of cushion covers and a handbag which sadlly still is WIP (work in process).
I love wool and have a bunch of ideas to realise, but have not got around to clean and carder enough wool for this. Sometimes I think that I should buy some merino wool or at least carded wool, so the process speeds up a bit. Just the thought of having to clean the room after a session of carding can put me off. The solution to my dilemma must be that in the coming spring I need to give up a few sunny days of gardening for washing, drying and carding of wool outside. We will see...
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