WoolPets

Varied Thrush

Finishing the last apples on the tree. Photo by Kevin Sharp.

 

And, my needle felted version. I simply love birds!

Penguin Needle Felting Class

This Sunday afternoon, I'll be teaching a class to make a needle felted penguin - a very easy, satisfying project for beginners or anyone interested in learning more about needle felting.

The class is going to be held from 5pm to 7pm at Venue, located in the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle. I'm really looking forward to spending a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon inside the warm, beautiful gallery at Venue, needle felting with other friendly folks. Hope to see you there!

New Needle Felting Kits

Woolpets is pleased to announce two new needle felting kits now available just in time for holiday crafting and gift giving.

Last year, I made a needle felted sock monkey for my neighbor as a holiday gift. I made a few more and had them out for display at a trade show. People were charmed by the needle felted sock monkey and kept asking me if I had a kit available to make him. At the time, I didn't. But shortly after, Mr. Woolpets and I put our crafty minds together and now here it is- The Fabulous Sock Monkey Needle Felting Kit!

This kit is designed for those with some experience needle felting but adventuresome craft folks won't have difficulty. Step by step instructions include photographs for each step. There is enough wool roving in the kit for 1 - 2 sock monkeys about 4-5" tall. The included roving is Corriedale. Since the kit contains a sharp needle, children under the age of ten should have adult supervision.

And the other new kit, The Chickadee Needle Felting Kit.

The chickadee kit came about as a result of many requests over the years. There is enough wool roving in the kit for 2 chickadees about 2" - 3" long. The detailed photo instructions show how to make all of the details on the chickadee.

The kits are available in the Woolpets Etsy shop.

Happy Felting!

Surf Sheep

This past weekend, Mr. Woolpets and I went on a great trip to Vancouver Island, Victoria and Tofino, BC. We had planned this trip awhile back, not knowing that the Olympic relay torch would be following us from Victoria out to the coast. There was also a surf competition happening in Tofino, the Coldwater Classic and a local surfer did quite well. 

A few days before we left, I was inspired to make a needle felted Surf Sheep!

 

Now if I could just figure out how to make a surf board to scale for the sheep....

Forest Wee Folk

I just finished this family of Wee Forest Folk for the upcoming school auction. I absolutely love the work of Salley Mavor and her book Felt Wee Folk. These little dolls are based on the patterns in her book. They will be living in a handmade tree house created by the kindergarten teacher. Hopefully, I will get some photos of the tree house before it goes off to auction!

Needle Felted Farm Friends

Today I helped a group of mom's make some needle felted farm animals for the upcoming school auction. I was so impressed by their skill - I had to share a few photos. Some have done a little needle felting, but most were new to it.

Sweet cow and chicken.

I love the expression on this little pig's face.

Thanks to all the momma's for a fun day of felting!

Waldorf Inspired Felted Puppet Family

My path of discover in needle felting began many years ago when I was in a Waldorf teacher training program. Part of my training involved learning how to use natural, soft, beautifully colored wool to make dolls for puppetry.  I learned how needle felting is a technique that allows the wool fibers to be sculpted together. And I fell in love!

Jump ahead 12 years and I still love making those beautiful puppets for the kindergarten.  It was actually a challenge to create these simple dolls as compared to the sophisticate detailed dolls that I typically make for adults to enjoy. The simplicity of these dolls are what is most important. The lack of details and facial expressions allows for the child's imagination to provide whatever it is they need from the puppet. In other words, there is no predetermined expression and so the puppet can be sad or happy.

 

If you are interested in learning more about the Waldorf philosophy and how it applies to doll making, I suggest reading The Doll Book by Karin Neuschutz. The first part of the book is about child development and the roll of dolls and toys. The second part of the book is doll patterns and instructions. It seems that this book maybe out of print or hard to find, but well worth the extra money and effort to find it.

Happy Wednesday!

Hike of the Week - Mount Townsend

Today, Mr. Woolpets and I (along with Oscar and Albert) climbed to the top of Mount Townsend! Although it was pretty strenuous, the views from the top were well worth the effort!

 

 

I love being able to get into the high country within a few hours of home! The autumn colors are spectacular now.

We didn't see any wildlife, but perhaps the dogs had something to do with that.

 

 

The wild mushrooms are starting to pop up everywhere.  Time to make some tasty mushroom lasagna.

Happy Sunday and don't forget to get out and enjoy the fall!

Woolly Bear Caterpillar Tutorial

If you're like me, you have lots of extra bits of yarn and string laying around your craft space. What to do with all that leftover stuff? Make it into pom-pom animals!

I've been waiting until fall to put this fun little tutorial together, since Woolly Bear Caterpillars are out in the late summer and autumn. But I've had the idea since early spring. 

You will need some black and orange-ish colored yarn, strong button thread and a needle, card stock and a pair of sharp scissors. I like to use the spring-handled kind for trimming the pom-pom animals.

I made a template with card stock. It's about 6" long and 2" wide, with a slit cut out of the middle.

First, wrap the black yarn around each end of the template. Then wrap the orange yarn around the middle of the template. Try to keep the orange and black yarn separate as you wrap. You don't need to wrap tightly, just evenly.

Next, use the strong button thread and stitch back and forth between the layers of yarn through the middle of the template.

Take your time and make sure you have stitched the layers tightly together.

Once you have gone back and forth several times, you can begin to cut the yarn away from the template.

Start on one end and work your way down the caterpillar's body and around to the other side.

Remove the paper template.

The caterpillar is probably a shaggy mess right now. Don't worry- it's time to give him a haircut. For me, this is the most difficult part. Mostly because I tend to get carried away and cut too much at once. Start by trimming all over the caterpillar, just a little bit at a time.

Here's a basket full of the trimmings. You can see that I didn't trim off a ton of wool. Just a handful to help shape the caterpillar.

I found that it helps to brush out the yarn while I'm trimming. 

Here he's looking pretty good. Nice and evenly trimmed.

Lastly, I sewed on a pair of tiny, round black buttons for eyes.

Here's Mr. Woolly Bear, hanging out under this incredibly ugly yet marvelous Shaggy Mane mushroom.

You can add a few stitches to sew him into place as a rolled up Woolly Bear.

If you have young children at home, you can teach them this little rhyme while playing with their Woolly Bear-

"Little Arabella Miller
Found a furry caterpillar
First it climbed upon her mother
Then upon her baby brother
"Ugh" said Arabella Miller
"Take away that caterpillar!"

I was inspired to make this woolly pom-pom animal after reading "Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts" and noticing some pom-pom animals in the book.

And, I was given a really cool old vintage book about making pom-pom animals. It's still available from this bookseller.

Here are a few photos from the book-

The book has patterns and instructions for making several different types of pom-pom animals including a lamb and a lion.

I also found a Flickr group dedicated to pom-pom animals called Pompom-o-rama!

Have fun and happy pom-pom making!

We've gone Finnish!

Hey, that owl looks familiar! A few months ago, one of my editors at Creative Publishing announced that the Woolpets book was being translated into Finnish! I'm so honored that there are people all across the world learning how to needle felt and using the Woolpets book to help inspire them.

 

The Finnish publishing company is called Tammi-the third largest publishing house in Finland. I would love to take a trip to Finland and do a needle felting workshop!

I typed the title into Google translate and only "Woolen Pikkupehmot" resulted. Can anyone tell me what 'Pikkupehmot' means?