Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Felted wool rug

Well,  that was a long break.
I wish that I kept up with my blog through the holidays but I just got too busy.
Now I have time to sit back and reflect.

I did make a really cool gift for my sister-in-law in Seattle.  I wanted to post it right away but I had to wait till she got it.  I felted a rug.  It was large (forgot to measure it) enough for her feet at the side of her bed - in fact its probably a bit to large for that.  It was the first time felting a rug and I had a lot of fun (so did my boys with the felting process!)

I laid out all the colors on top of a base of white wool batting form West Earl Woolen Mill (717) 859-2241 - they have no web site - so worth the phone call and talking with an actual person! 
I do have to say that I didn't lay out the colors correctly - all I did was lay them on top of the white - I should have broken up the color a bit and criss crossed it - instead I just laid a strip of this and that and that's how the rug turned out (a layer of color on white).  

Then I rolled it up in a big heavy duty bubble wrap with very hot soapy water & a white sheet

(I got the bubble wrap at Rheinbek wool festival) and rolled it for two days and whacked it around and rolled it around and then I unrolled it to check for movement of the pattern but for the most part t didn't move.   I rolled it some more and then after it was felted enough I threw it around the bathtub for a while to shock the wool into felting some more.  Love my feet??  Ha.  
Then after all that and rinsing it out and stepping all over it - I took it down to the washer machine and put it on spin and spun it dry.  Then I hesitated to put it in the dryer but i did it anyway and boy was I glad - after it was in there on low for 15 minutes it was dry, fluffy and ready to mail off to her.  I was happy with the process and I can't wait to try it again.

3 comments:

Lisa Anne said...

That is so cool! I remember that your bubblewrap mat from the Rhinebeck show. Fun to see the final product.

Teaching Handwork said...

coooooooool!!!! love it, can't wait to try and make one myself!

Teaching Handwork said...

you must run over to http://pamdegroot.blogspot.com/
she has a great hat tutorial for felting with 7th grade. she doesn't want to keep it posted to hurry over there