You may recall from my felted butterfly post that I was inspired to try needle felting by this video from Bubzbeauty. So inspired that I wanted my first project to be a little Totoro like her step-by-step showed.
He was less Totoro shaped than I would have liked, but in the end he became a cute little owl…with large, bunny-ish ears. Hey, at least he came out cute.
I’ve been fairly project-monogamous, if you will, lately. Mostly because I have until Monday (not Sunday, as I thankfully found out yesterday) to turn this:
into something a bit more like this:
(random lovie picture from Amazon)
Okay, I don’t really have to take it from ball form. It’s quite a bit past this stage:
But that is the last time I took a photo. Still, I have to finish the body, then crochet the edging, then add the black detail patches to the face. So, a lot to get done. It doesn’t help that I managed to injure my finger with the size 1.5 needles.
https://twitter.com/caseykay08/status/372503996314836993
Which leads to a little impromptu review of the Knitpicks Options fixed circular needles. These things are great. The tips are (obviously) very sharp, so you can get through those tiny stitches that are made on size 0-3 needles. Plus, the cable is very flexible and the joins are smooth so there is never any fighting with the needle when you are trying to move stitches around.
Okay, enough talking about it. I’ve got to go finish the lovie so it can have a bath, a dry, and a possible de-linting, before Monday’s party.
I had seen a bit about needle felting before, but this video from Bubzbeauty got me really interested. (In fact, I think her Totoro design is going to be the first 3D piece I try next.) I was wandering the aisles of Michael’s with a 50% off coupon one day and saw the Dimensions Feltworks Butterfly “learn needle felting kit”.
The kit comes with pre-printed felt, two colors of roving (unspun wool), yarn and embroidery thread, felting and embroidery needles. The first thing I would suggest is to get something better than the foam block included with the kit to felt on. The foam deflates very quickly, especially as much as you have to stab the needle into the felt to get it to hold. You can buy a special “felting mat”, but I went with a plastic-bristled scrub brush from the cleaning supplies aisle at Target.
The felting instructions are really easy to understand, as are the instructions on how to create the butterfly and use the finished butterfly. The embroidery instructions may be a little difficult to understand if you have never done embroidery before, but there are always great instruction videos on YouTube. All in all, this is a great little kit to get started felting, and a great project for beginning felters. Plus, it’s an adorable butterfly. What more convincing do you need?
Another thing, besides the felting mat I mentioned before, that might make it easier to learn is the Clover Pen-Style Felting Tool. You can use 1, 2, or 3 needles at a time, and it extends to two different lengths. Let me tell you, three needles at a time makes the whole process go a lot faster, at least when you are working flat.
Casey Kay B 