Needle Felted Lamb

Felted Lamb
Take some freshly shorn Romney wool and wash and dry it

Card it with your Ashford Flick Carder

When it is all nice and fluffy, blend in some black mixed breed wool with your Ashford Flick Carder.  Reserve some unblended black and white for later.

Blend until you have a nice mix, but not so much that you can no longer see the individual colors.
Gather your felting supplies.  A hard surface if you are working on your lap, or a work table.  A towel to keep the fleece from sliding off.  Your choice of felting needles, I like the Clover Pen Style Needle Felting Tool which has two needles in it, but you can use a single just as easily.  You also need either a felting mat or brush to work on. 

We will start with the legs of the lamb. Use the mixed wool in all steps unless otherwise instructed.  You want to make 4 evenly shaped legs, about the size of your pinky, felting stiffly the bottom 2/3rds.   To make each leg., roll a tube of wool and lay it on your mat or brush and poke it with your felting needle and turn it as you go, to keep the leg an even tube.  Be sure to round the ends of the feet and leave the top 1/3 loose and fluffy to attach later.
Next make the body, roll an oval ball about the size of the palm of your hand.
Felt the entire ball until firm, adding more layers of wool to get the size you want. 

Next we want to attach the legs to the body. 

Starting with the hind legs, lay the fluffy top 1/3 that you did not felt over the round body of the lamb, felt in place.

Repeat for the rest of the legs, positioning them two in front and two in back.  Here is where I am working on the back legs, smoothing the fluffy tops around the body evenly.  When attaching the legs, don’t forget to go to the inside of the legs as well.  You want your lamb to be able to stand on its own.

Add a small tuft of wool for a tail, shaping as you prefer.

Next make a small ball of wool for the neck.  You can attach it now to the body or attach it to the head here in a moment, and then to the body, whichever is more comfortable for you.  I have attached it here to the body.

My lamb is a black faced lamb.  Roll a ball, about the size of your first joint of your thumb for the head out of the black wool.  Leave some loose like you did for the legs on one side to attach to the neck and attach it, working the wool over and onto the neck
Be sure to felt the head and neck on tight, checking during felting, and checking that your head is not too heavy or large for your lamb to stand on its own.  It’s easier to pull off and make a new head now than later.  .  Take a few wisps of mixed wool and layer it over the join of the head, to blend in the black of the head to the body more evenly.

Time for some little ears!  Roll a very tiny little ball of mixed wool and flatten it

Decide where you want your ears to be on the head and felt a little dip in the head where they will be placed.  Then felt the side of the ear in the dip and shape and form the ears so they stick up.

Next are the eyes.  Use some of the white wool and like you did with the ears, locate on the head where you want to place the eyes and felt a little first.  Make a very tiny round ball of white and felt it into the head, sinking the eye in some.  Felt a little for a smile or mouth if desired.

How does she look?  Have any loose parts?  Go over the body and felt any loose areas.
 

All done!
As an option, if you want, you can also add a tongue to our little lamb.  Take a little tuft of white and felt a flat ball.
 

Just like you did for the ears felt in a little tongue in the mouth.  I found it easier to felt from the top to the bottom.



Thanks so much and enjoy!

Noelle had a little lamb

My first attempt at a needle felted lamb.  Made of 100% wool, with no chemical processing.

Wet felting, a first try

So, as you know I bought an Ashford Joy spinning wheel a few weeks ago, and have not yet figured out how to spin.  I signed up for a class, so that problem will be solved soon.  I was perusing the Ashford website and ran across their Ashford club.  It was not too expensive so I joined.  One of the benefits, other than the coolness of getting a magazine mailed to me from New Zealand, is they have member's only competitions.  They have two different competitions going on right now, both for different drum carders.  Oh how I would love to have one!  The one that expires soon, I just cant think of anything for.  But the one that expires at the end of June, well now that inspired me.

The challenge:
Prepare a batt blending colours and or fibres using an Ashford Drum Carder or Ashford Hand carders and then show us what you have made with the batt.  The winner gets a new Drum Carder!


Well, I had just purchased an Ashford flick carder, so what a way to christen it than for an Ashford competition!  No, I have no hope for winning, this being my first carding project and my first wet felting project, but ... I just have to try!  I may use this first one as my trial, and then do it again for the contest.

I started with a roving of black Corriedale wool and another of natural undyed Merino wool.  I was very curious how these two opposite colors would blend.  To use a flick carder you only have one carder, and then you 'flick' it on a heavy piece of leather, blending the different fibers. 

You can see my little pile of mixed fibers coming together,  I wasnt trying for a true gray but more of a variegated look.  This happened to be harder than I thought it would be.  I tried using the carder like a comb as well, which did about as well.

 What to make....well for my first project, I am just going to make up a small square table decoration, just something to try out the process.  So first, you need bubble wrap, the small kind, and some kind of fine mesh.  I used an old sheer curtain piece.  The bubble wrap helps with the felting with the bumpy surface.  You start by laying small thin sections of the batt on the sheer which is on top of the bubble wrap.  I really should have had a piece of bubble wrap that was larger than my project, this did prove to be the first problem with this trial.

 Then alternating directions you put on at least 4 or more layers

 Then cover it with another layer of sheer.  Then comes the 'felting' part.  This is where you wet the felt lightly with soapy water, and then rub on the top of it, going in all directions.  You do this until the felt no longer pulls hairs off when you test it.  Then comes the fulling part.  This is where you roll it up in a tube and and then roll it back and forth, tightening your roll up if it gets loose.  You do this until when you pull on the grain of the fabric, it doesnt pull apart.  I thought I had done both of these steps enough.  Now you rinse it alternately in hot then cold water.  This is the first time having two sinks in the bathroom was actually useful.

 Then you roll it up in a towel to get all the water out. and then you let it air dry.

What I learned from this project, is see here where I was trying for some dimension with having a middle stripe of fibers going the opposite way?  I did not pull these fibers as thin as the rest of the fabric and they also did not felt as well and are not stuck as well as the rest. 

I certainly like the carding for blending the fiber, but am not yet sure I like wet felting.  I may try blending some more and then trying out needle felting, which I have done once before a little of.