Or, “How I spent half an hour last night.”
With all the wool that Willow works with (okay, unintentional alliteration there), I decided I wanted to know what needle felting was like. It seemed like a Willow-y kind of project. I ordered a couple of wool sweaters and decided to go for it.
Discovery one: You can’t get the needles and blocks from our local Joann. *cue sad music*
So… I went to Amazon.com and scouted kits. I really liked these two:
Discovery two: Murphy’s Law applies to crafts too. Of course, it’s out of stock.
The good news, however, is that I really didn’t want to make a 3-D object first time around.
So, I hopped on over to Hobby Lobby to buy something else one day and while I was there, I bought a kit that you can actually get on Amazon too. But hey. It worked. Life is good. I also bought some flat wool felt to practice on. I thought it made sense. Why ruin my sweaters with practice? Note: the kit from Amazon shown in the picture has something I WANT (and will probably order if I still want to do this later–FINGER PROTECTORS!!!)
Now to do this little project, I decided I would be “Willow-y” and get a glimpse of how someone does it and “do my own thing.” Learn as I go. Try not to impale my fingers with barbed needles. YOUCH! *Spoiler alert* I didn’t. Yet.
So… let me needle you a bit…
Ingredients:
Needle Felting Kit
Felt
Roving (These I bought for 1.50 each (pkg) from the Daiso store in SoCal. Love those stores.
Big idea. (Free)
Here goes…

Unrolled felt. It didn’t want to stay flat, so I just rolled it the opposite way, smooshed, and voila! (I’d almost say “wa-la” to annoy Ashley, but it makes my eyes bleed)

Then I started “twistin'” (and yes, I was singing this song… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSoPeZMHMf4 It was 2 a.m…. it worked!

Goodness I have big hands in this pic! Anywho… that’s how I got started. Stuck that thing in there and then stuck it again–like 40 times or so. Onto the next centimeter.

Splicing was easier than I expected. Just flatten the piece you have a bit, flatten a new one, roll and pull a bit as you do. Twist. Done. WOOT!

This is what it looks like on the back. If this was thinner felt (it is THICK–like 2-3 thicknesses of what you get in cheap craft felt), I think the pattern might show up well on the back.
That’s it. That’s what I got done in 30 minutes of needle felting. Stay tuned for part two!