Bears and other creatures....

So my f.m.i.l ( a lot of my post may start "so my f.m.i.l") was making little needle felted creatures.

Needle Felting involves.... you guessed it needles and felt. Martha Stewart has a pretty good post on her website about about how to needle felt. The needles used for felting are no ordinary needle they are barbed and quite frankly pretty evil. Anyone who has ever poked themselves with one will understand what I mean.
Its not just that you poke yourself, its the fact that you poke yourself about 3 time before you realise what you have done. They have these nifty little finger protectors now.

See all those little barbs? They make the felt mat together as the needle passes in and out.

Depending on the gauge, there are more or less barbs and also the barbs are positioned higher or lower on the needle.  

The felt kind of looks like wool candy floss, it comes in many colours and many texture.

Needle felting looked like fun, so I thought I would give it ago. Gwen (f.m.i.l) disappeared in toThe Magical Craft Cupboard for a few minutes and then reappeared with a felting starter kit. Felting needles in a range of gauges, a rainbow of felting wool and not forgetting a piece of foam.

I got to it at the first available opportunity. This opportunity being my childcare lecture at college. I tend to do my hobbies in places I'm not meant to. Much like this blog which I am writing at my desk at work tut tut! It turned out childcare wasn't for me, and I found my fellow classmates unintelligent questions maddening so stabbing a lump of felt was just perfect.

I hadn't really had a plan in mind, when I started mindlessly poking the felt. I hadn't done any research on felting techniques but my mindless poking turned out to be a little penguin. It was actually not bad for a first attempt. Nothing compared to Martha's but an acceptable first attempt.

I can't say I did much needle felting after this, the bag didn't make it to the loft but has been sitting untouched for quite some years now. I do intend on trying other felt crafts but just haven't got round to it just yet.