I have an increasing number of friends who keep sheep and, therefore, they have lots of fleeces around at this time of year. This means that, because of my interest in things woolly, I get plenty of offers of fleece. In general, I turn them down because my real loves are knitting and crochet (and a bit of felt-making on the side) and I really don’t want to have to go through all the rigmarole to get to yarn (or wool tops for the felt). However, when one of my Twitter friends said that she wanted to have a go at making felted fleece rugs from her collection of fleeces, I asked if I could join in (just in case I loved the activity and would have found a reason to accept all those fleecy offers).
So, last Sunday, another friend and I trundled down to Carmarthenshire, and rolled up our sleeves, to get felting.
The idea is to use a whole fleece and felt the underside of it (using wool from a different sheep) whilst keeping the top unfelted. You do this (according to the instructions we were following) by working on a mesh, so that what will be the top of the final rug hangs down through the gaps and doesn’t get involved in the felting process.
You start my making lots of fluff from a tatty fleece, pulling it gently apart and separating the fibres, then you spread these out over the underside of the fleece. First in one direction, then in the other. After that, it’s simply a case of using soap and water to work the wool into felt. I say ‘simply’, but it’s actually really hard work to persuade raw (although washed) wool, in large quantities, to become felt. We made some progress with three of us working together, but we didn’t complete the rug.
It was an interesting experiment and, despite not ending up with a finished rug, we learned a lot:
- It turned out that the gaps in the mesh of the fence panel we were working on were a bit too big – not providing enough support to felt successfully without moving the fleece around periodically.
- The panel was a bit too bouncy as well, so a bit more support would have been helpful.
- Our instructions suggested using washing-up liquid as the soap, but it’s harsh on the hands after a whole day and I would use olive oil soap in future, as I do for other felting.
- There was no mention of covering the work with net (as I usually do when felting) to stop the fibres lifting up. It’s absence made the work much more difficult and I would employ a net cover next time.
- The process could have been speeded up by using a rolled bamboo mat as a sort of rolling pin to give extra friction a bit later in the process.
- A whole fleece was a rather ambitious first project – it would have been better to make some mats to begin with.
Nevertheless, we had a lovely sociable day, a fabulous lunch which we all contributed to, and an audience with a special interest in the project:
Ken and Dave
I’m sure there’s going to be a next time! I might even remember to photograph the finished item second time round.
The Snail of Happiness 
Robin
/ July 16, 2017Interesting. Thanks for sharing! Like you, I’m more about the yarn (and crocheting) after it’s been taken care of but I love to learn.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2017I’ve been on all sorts of crafty courses, but I always return to the yarn!
LikeLike
nanacathy2
/ July 16, 2017My gosh this sounds a big undertaking, but a marvellous joint enterprise. Really interesting.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2017It was a fun day, which was really the point, and we did learn loads.
LikeLike
katechiconi
/ July 16, 2017I’d say small gauge chicken wire laid over what you were working on before might do the trick. I’m also wondering if a pre-felt mat laid onto the back of the fleece and persuaded to bond to the wool might be an easier way to go. That way, you can make the pre-felt with the full hard treatment without worrying about matting the main fleece, and just a bit of agitation to bond it to the raw wool?
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2017Yes, chicken wire is what we are planning using next time. Not sure whether prefelt would work, but it’s certainly worth experimenting with. I think it would help to card the wool for the backing at least the direction of the fibres would be more controllable then!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tracy @ It's a T-Sweets Day!
/ July 16, 2017Oh my! You are ambitious:). Now that you have learned the tricks, I’m sure there will be many beautiful rugs in your future:)!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2017I hope so!
LikeLike
Annie
/ July 16, 2017It’s great to see an alternative to sheepskin rugs, well done you.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2017Less chemicals required than tanning a skin.
LikeLike
Annie
/ July 18, 2017Yes, that too. Though Hannah T uses brains.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 18, 2017I don’t know much about tanning… I know you can use urine and faeces!
LikeLike
thecontentedcrafter
/ July 16, 2017I think this has promise – hope you do give it another try……….
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 17, 2017I’m sure we will
LikeLike
Born To Organize
/ July 17, 2017It’s fun trying new things. Good for you!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 17, 2017I could have done without getting sunburnt, though
LikeLike
Born To Organize
/ July 17, 2017Oh dear. That’s the worst.
LikeLike
arlingwoman
/ July 17, 2017Wow. This was interesting. Lots of work! I wonder if what we call hardware cloth here would work. Smaller that chicken wire and in squares. Wow, again.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 17, 2017It seems to me that the technique could be refined to work with the resources available in a particular place… it is very low-tech after all!
LikeLiked by 1 person
redappleyarn
/ July 17, 2017When Ceri made large scale felt piece for her textiles degree finals, she used a 4×4, some canvas and a rough concrete yard!! Checking how feltable the fleece was first helped as some wool gangs up more easily.
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 18, 2017Now that I would have liked to see!
LikeLike
KerryCan
/ July 17, 2017What a huge undertaking–it sounds like it was fun but, my heavens, what a lot of work!
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 18, 2017Hopefully it will be easier next time!
LikeLike
Linne
/ July 22, 2017Loved this! I remember reading somewhere (online, most likely) about a fabric artist in the States who does very large pieces of felt in his driveway and then fashions ‘clothing’ from the felt for large installations. What impressed me about his method was that he uses a belt sander, minus the sandpaper, to provide the friction. You might want to try it on a sample and see if that helps. ~ Linne
LikeLike
The Snail of Happiness
/ July 22, 2017Interesting… I guess any way to achieve the friction might work.
LikeLike