Wet felting is fun!

I apologize for the lack of posting here at the Unique blog.  I went on vacation and life got crazy.  We're back on track now and ready to talk about some Unique fun.

Yesterday Nancy and I were lucky enough to attend the wet felting class.  This class was the second in a series of four.  (More on that later!).  The day was lovely so tables were brought outside.  Wise idea since we made the greatest, bubbly mess.  EJ Rebman was our fabulous teacher, assisted by her lovely daughter-in-law, Tara.  In this first picture you can see my nice little pile of roving, waiting for soap and water to be added.  Basically, (and this is REALLY the short version of how this works.  Please pick up a book or consult the internet for better instructions.) you make a nice pile of roving, alternating layers vertically and horizontally.  Mine had 4 layers.  Then you add soap (we used Dawn) and as-hot-as-you-can-stand water.  Top with bubble wrap or a lingerie bag and rub.  And rub.  And rub.  Using the palm of your hands in a circular motion you rub until it begins to look like it is all felting together pretty well.

Jill popped her head out to say hi!

After the rubbing stage, you wet with hot water again and then wrap in a bamboo mat and roll.  Rub and roll!  This fulls your piece and makes it stiffen up.  It also shrinks a bit during this process.  In the end you have a really creative piece of felt.  The texture is different from the felt created by knitting first (that was the first felting class), but the wet felt method gives you a whole new set of options like balls, squares, any shape and combination of color you can think of. 

You can see both finished felt pieces there on the left.  This morning, mine was dry, so I took my rotary cutter and cut off a slice so you could see the interior. It's a little sandwich of color.  As you can tell, I'm fired up about this new skill.  If you have kids, this would be such a great summer activity!

As I mentioned, this was the second class in the 4 class series "Felting 101".  Each one is a stand alone, 2 hour, $25 class.  You can just take one, or more.  Completely up to you.  One session classes are great for a busy summer schedule.  Next class is "Recycled Felting", Wednesday, July 18 from 10 to noon.  The class description in the newsletter reads: Environmentally responsible, cheap, fast and fun using re-purposed knits.  I'm already signed up.  Won't you join me?!