Time to Craft

Yesterday, while we were waiting for the fleece to wash, I set up a felting activity for the girls. I knew that they might not resist sneaking out and squeezing the fleece to wash it.

We used some of the rainbow roving that Grandma gave them. The girls each took a piece about 40cm long and the thickness of a finger. They plunged it into warm soapy water and gently squeezed the excess water out.

Next we placed the wool sausage on some bubble wrap, folded the wrap over and rolled it over and over again. It needed a firm touch to agitate the wool, so that it would felt. Although we have felted bags and beads before, this is the first time we’ve used bubble wrap to felt the wool and also the first time we’ve felted outside. Both were really successful and we will be doing it again.

It took about 10 minutes of rolling to make a hard felted sausage shape. Then we rinsed it in cold water, squeezed out as much water, without losing the shape, and left it to dry.

I cut each of the felted sausages in half. The girls choose to swap with each other, so they had one pink and one purple. I then folded each felted sausage over a hairband and wound embroidery thread round the top part. I didn’t want to attach it by knotting it as it would have been bulky and shortened the felt.

Two happy girls. We might add more to the band, but at the moment I have two happy girls.