Little Felted Critters: It's Crafty by Trish Tsoi-a-Sue

The felting teachers will be aghast, but I am personally pleased to have worked with some 10 year olds last Tuesday to create some little felted critters.  See photos.

A LITTLE ABOUT FELTING

If you've never felted before, you totally should try it out.  I did at a charity event in LA, and created a little felted chicken penguin.  Everyone sat around the table, with their needle and colored wool and made whatever the wanted!  There was no pattern, no instruction, other than to roll a piece of wool and needle it.  Add more wool and needle that!  Each time the needle goes into the wool, it drags several fibers with it, through the body of the critter... compacting it.

The critters that the kids created made use of wool that I colored with food coloring and lemon juice.  (so far, there's only red and blue and the original white).

A LITTLE ABOUT COLORING WOOL WITH FOOD COLORING

If you'd like to try coloring wool with food coloring, here's how it works.

Put water into an old pot.  Don't plan on using the pot for anything else but dyeing after that. Dye pots should not be used for food.  Add food coloring.  Some of the big box stores carry large bottles of primary colors.  Add somewhere around 1/4 cup of lemon juice to fix the color into the wool. (the measure need not be exact)

Simmer on the stove.  Some instructions say about 30-40 minutes.  I've been told that it should simmer until the dye is fully absorbed by the wool, and the remaining water is clear.  I simmer it for at least 30-40 minutes, or until the water has all evaporated.

At this point, I'll add that there has always been a little bit of color left in the water when I've done it (all 3 times).  Folks that I talk to tell me that the color is fully absorbed when they do it.  Let's chalk it up to my inexperience.

Let the pot of wool cool naturally.  Then rinse in cool water and hang out to dry. 

Note: I once made the mistake of taking the wool through several extremes of temperature, washing in hot then cold then hot then cold.  I forget why... The result was a mat of felted wool.  Each time I washed it in hot water, new kinks developed in the wool fibers, until they were tightly intertwined.

More Note: This is a protein fiber technique. It won't work with cotton.