How to Make a Needle Felted Starfish by Loretta Alvarado
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Of all the Kindle versions of felting books I’ve read, this is the most inspiring. Since I am working on a seahorse, a starfish seems the most logical next project. The pictures were beautiful and well presented so one might not need the words to do the job. The instructions were short and to the point.
If you are thinking of needle felting, this may be a good first project for you. Great job, Loretta Alvarado!
Though this book had a lot of fun things to make, they were all wet-felted. Worst of all the pictures were not visible in any way. I read it on the PC because it makes the font and pictures bigger than on my Kindle Fires. But this one it didn’t help at all.
Still, the instructions didn’t seem impossible to understand so if you wanted to make the product reading could get you there. This is another one I will revisit next summer when I can handle getting wet. It is almost too cold to do the dishes in our house right now. Sure your hands are warm while in the water but the minute you put the last dish in the drainer your hands are cold. I’ll stick to the less painful, yet occasional prickly needle felting. Weird that I prefer blood to cold.
Though this book is about felting, it is more about wet-felting. And though there is a bit of needle felting and some ideas for what to do with defective or broken needles, it wasn’t enough for me and my need to learn about needle felting.
Another cool thing about this book is that it is for parents or teachers/counselors of children with disabilities. I can see how the wet felting could be fun and how it could be a great bonding experience for everyone. And the squishing wonderful feeling of wet felting has to be a lot of fun. Maybe as good as making slime, but you get to keep the item you make, not just clean it up.
But for me, it is getting cold and I just don’t have the room that is warm enough to do wet felting. Maybe next summer I will revisit this book and this part of the craft of felting.
Needle Felting for Beginners: Sculpting with wool – cute, easy projects with step-by-step tutorials by Lori Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I want to give this book 5 stars. I really do. But with no Text-to-Speech for some of us, it is hard to read. Maybe I could give it 4.5? Because…
It is the perfect book for a felting newbie. It really does start with cookie cutter easy felts. And there are a few websites to go to from the book. Too bad they aren’t links. And you can’t copy the URLs to paste into an address bar, so … just not as well formatted as it could be.
STILL, for those just getting started on this craft, this may be the best book to get. I have ‘leafed’ through it several times on several of my readers. The best one is the PC Kindle as the pictures and fonts are much larger.
Maybe a warning I just picked up on, one shouldn’t use upholstery foam because it has fire-retardant. I cut up an old neck pillow that I gave up on a while ago. Since I’ve already spent my fun cash for this new hobby, I can’t afford another. But I’ll try to get a new felting cushion soon. I hope I don’t get to the point of it being dust that would be bad for my lungs.
So get this book if you can. There’s a lot to learn in it despite the formatting.
Felting: The Complete Guide by Jane Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a beautifully illustrated, how-to book. I loved that it was ring-bound rather than a glue and stitching binding. It makes it easy to hold the book open on the page as you try the methods. If I were working on the projects presented I would be ever so grateful. But I’m trying to make other things.
I think if one were working on a wet felting this would be even better as your hands would be too wet to turn pages that accidentally flip.
If I had read this before the era of YouTube I might have given it five stars. But, hey, there are so many tutorials out there to walk you through everything. So, if you don’t have a computer go check this out at the library, or if you have the cash, buy it. You’ll love it. I’d love to see what you make!
Heart Felt Knits: 25 Fresh and Modern Felting Projects by Tamara Mello
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
How can I fairly review this book? The wool that was donated to us is good for cores of toys but I don’t think it will do well for wet-felting. It certainly can’t be spun into a decent yarn. This book centers on felting that is done from knitted items.
Yet, if this appeals to you, and the pictures are certainly appealing, you might want to go out and buy good wool yarns and get busy. In fact, the scarf featured on the actress on the front of this book is beautiful. If you recognize her, from the show Popular, it may be even more fun to read this book. Ms. Tamara Mello spent much of her downtime on set, knitting. Reading about her path of learning knitting was fun. I loved the looks of all the items pictured in the book. The instructions, even for learning to knit, were thorough and well illustrated.
So I guess I should mark this 5 stars, even though it isn’t helpful now. Who knows how far I will get into the felting hobby? I may find myself buying this book later instead of borrowing it from the eBook library.
In the last couple weeks, the chairperson of the charity organization I belong to called me. Some nice person had donated wool to our group. Most of the time people donate yarn. Often it is of their own stash that they just don’t have the time or have lost interest in yarn arts. In Hat Huggers we take that yarn and knit, crochet, or loom knit items for the needy. But wool, straight off the sheep?
Ms. Carol (chairperson) has had sheep and recognized that the wool was in a ‘rolag’. Yeah. I thought, whatever that is. Quickly my brain dismissed the word. I kept calling it a hank of wool. But all of this sent me on an educational adventure. I soon learned, though not solid in my understanding (feel free to correct my definition) that the rolag is the first level of refinement after being sheered and washed. It is like a long rope of wool. There are still bits of hayseed and knots of wool. Apparently, this wool had been of several cuttings so some parts are shorter than others. This makes it a bad candidate for spinning. So Carol wondered if I would be willing to learn about felting. Would I? Of Course!
I have been very busy since finding books, or YouTubes, or Pins of felting. The more I read and watched the more excited I was to give it a try. Think molding with clay without the mess!
Carol gave the mass another washing and even put it through her carding machine. I think that makes it a batting or roving. I think batting because the bag of wool she gave me had a lot of seeds and stuff in it. I couldn’t wait to get started felting so I followed instructions of Sleepy Mice. They are so adorable! BUT
BUT I don’t have the tool she uses to wind the wool around. I used something similar to a chop-stick. I got the head and body too far apart. Now that I look at it, it looks more like a seahorse.
This is just the core as this level of wool is too rough and. well, ugly to use for the finished product. I’ll be getting some nice roving on Wednesday to finish this guy.
Meanwhile, I have a bag full of the rolag that just feels awful. I have no carding machine, not even the hand carders or even dog brushes that can work in a pinch. But I have short hair and in no need for a couple of brushes I used to use on my long hair. So I improvised and have been carding all day.
That first bag (left) is the rolag as Carol gave it to me. The brushes follow. I pulled out a couple of the puffs of wool I had carded and the bag on the right is what I carded today. I think it is enough to start another needle felting project. I want to try the mice but I saw a simpler rabbit that might be better for a first project. I am hooked! Even if we never get wool donated again, I will keep trying my hand and maybe even sell my projects to support my habit. 🙂
By the way, I am still in love with loom knitting and looking for ways to incorporate both hobbies. It has been a fun busy summer.
Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 100 books for the 2013 Reading Challenge! 115 of 100 (115%)
Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 225 books for the 2012 Reading Challenge! 225 of 225 (100%)
Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 200 books for the 2011 Reading Challenge! 204 of 200 (102%)
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