Felted Bird House / Fairy House

This Fiber Trends pattern for a felted bird house was begging to be made into a fairy house, if you ask me. That said, I dove into my first knitted felting project, and found it to be pretty easy. It knits fast, and then into the washing machine it went.

Luckily we had a birthday party coming up so we all set about fashioning it into a fairy house for a lovely four-year-old girl. We were nearly done with wrapping when I realized I had not taken a photo, so in a rush we got this:

Some helpful tips for felting in the washing machine:

• Throw in a pair of jeans you don't mind washing a lot. It helps with the agitation.
• Place each knitted piece in its own zipped pillowcase. Bits of wool chunk off and you don't want them clogging up your machine or felting onto the other piece.
• Don't worry about weaving in any ends. They will magically felt like everything else.
• Go between very hot water/agitation, and very cold water/agitation. This makes it go faster.
• It might take three or four times of agitating to get it small. Basically keep doing cycles of it until it won't shrink anymore.

On top of the finished piece I needle felted different wooly bits to make some grass, flowers and windows, as well as the polka dotted roof. After the felting, you can cut into the piece without it fraying, so I used an exacto knife to cut the door shape. I needle felted a ball for the doorknob.

Miss Six and my Other Half whipped up the popsicle stick weathervane and needle felted rooster while I finished up the details on the house. While that was going on, LEB (3.5 y) made the two people to be the first inhabitants. We tied them to the outside of the packaging and set off to the party with minutes to spare.

This was our first family collaboration and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. No doubt more of these will be in our gift giving future.

Softie from a Child's Drawing

For V's birthday, I took one of her imaginary animal drawings to make a softie. Using some colored wool, I needle felted it into shape and then did a blanket stitch to make a small pillowy animal for her. 

This animal is named Stripey. It eats stripes, drinks polka dots, and is the protector of all jungles. How could I not try and bring it to life a bit?

Needle Felted Weekend

Someone suggested that the girls use a chopstick to hold the felt down while poking with a needle into the felt, and it was brilliant! 

We had a wooly weekend, making little animals and jewelry with the roving wool. 

To make the ring, I cut a small strip of felt that would fit around the ring finger and poked a small tuft of roving wool at the seam to join it. 

But the little nest/bowl is my favorite, because it reminds me of these sweet nesting bowls on Etsy. I think I will make a couple more in larger sizes to go with this one that is being used temporarily as a nest. 

With Easter behind us we are on to planting and cleaning up in preparation for spring, learning to ride without training wheels, and having friends come stay for the week. I will try to keep posting, but there is a chance I get spotty as the week goes on and people arrive from Tuesday through Saturday. Rest assured, I am staying crafty and snapping photos all the while!

Needle Felting Kids Drawings

Inspired again by Lisa at 5 Orange Potatoes, Miss Kinder and I decided to make felt bracelets from two recent animal drawings. We followed Lisa's tutorial with one exception -- we used roving wool for the insides and did some needle felting! 

Disclaimer: The felting needle is super duper sharp. This activity involves poking a sharp needle in and out of the roving wool and requires concentration. Probably you shouldn't let your nearly six year old do this. But I did. I watched her like a hawk and her temperament has always been careful and not impulsive. I know I wasn't much older than six before I was using a pocketknife and learning to whittle sticks. I'm done with my disclaiming now.

We cut the felt bracelet shape out and I embroidered the outline of her animal onto the felt. Then she chose the colors and we pulled out small tufts of dyed wool and began to poke the needle through them and into the felt. The fibers of the wool poke through the felt and sort of hook onto each other, and you get a lovely wooly color block. 

The more you poke, the more the wool flattens down and takes shape. You can use the needle to shape the wool, being sure to go carefully. Once I got the basic color down, I let Miss Kinder take over the poking, so she could do some.

They came out really cute, and were sent out as small gifts to some loved ones. In a couple of years, she'll be needle felting without supervision and who knows what she'll come up with!