questions about felting wool balls...

[rainbowmoon]

DH and I felted some wool balls last night (by hand) but some are full of little crevices that look like they might come apart. why did this happen and can it be fixed? can we throw them in the washing machine?

also where do you mamas buy large packs of wool in different colors for a good price?

[bridget]

How did you felt them by hand?

[mama_kass]

This lady sells felting needles for only 25 cents!
Hyper link is not working. So I'll just cut and paste. http://peacefleece.com/felting.htm

I don't think you are ever suppose to put wool in the washer. Perhaps you need to keep felting with the needle and that is why your balls have little crevices. Keeping working with the wool.

[hotmamacita]

Did you needle felt them?

Or hot soapy water and compressing them by hand?

[rainbowmoon]

yes I used hot soapy water and compressed them by hand..no needles. oh and I used the PF kit..I have directions somewhere for the washing machine.

[gardenmom]

Even after doing a lot of felting, I still have some trouble getting a perfectly smooth outside of a ball using just the wet felting method. If it's small, it's easier, but if I'm maiking a felt ball that I can't completely cup between my hands, I find it's really hard not to get flaps or crevices in the design. What happens is I end up putting another layer of fibre over and finishing it yet again until it looks perfect.

One trick is to make a core in the washer and felt that, then just add the color by hand as a final layer. When you wet the ball, try to keep the color layer as a loose shell without allowing any fibre to double up and form flaps or creases. Hold the ball in one hand and smooth out the creases/felt a tiny area at a time using the other hand--your knuckles or just a few fingers, tightening the wool in the places where it looks like excess is sitting until it's smooth enough to 'full' the entire ball at once (sorry if this is confusing).

Another excellent trick (which works better for me) is to needle felt the colored wool onto the outside of a (washing machine-felted) wool core, and then finish the ball by wet felting. This added step makes the wool stay in place almost totally when it gets wet and your design will work out to be much smoother and easier to hold together. There's a lot less room for error with this method.

As far as colors, in the past I've bought some 'felters candy' from a few different people on ebay and been pretty happy with what I got. There are a few regular sellers with ebay stores that seem to have a good selection and often offer a sample pack for a reasonable price.

Good Luck!

[gardenmom]

Just adding that I took a look at that peace fleece colored batting. I don't know if that's what's in the ball kit, but I think it would be fairly hard to make a smooth felt ball using that stuff and a wet felting method. I use white batting like that for the center of the balls I make, then combed white roving for the middle and colored roving for the outer design. It's very smooth, and I think that helps make the process a lot easier.

[rainbowmoon]

oh thanks so much for all the tips gardenmom! :D btw where do you buy your rovings from?

eta- this link for felting with the washing machine (check pg2)
http://gfwsheep.com/feltballs/feltballs1.html

[gardenmom]

I love the roving from Blue Goose Glen, but they have a lot of subdued colors...found them on ebay (user bluegooseglen), but here's the web site: http://woolspinner.home.att.net/fiber.htm

I bought a big bag of mixed plain (bright) colored corriedale roving from ebay user kiwicrafter. She's in New Zealand, so shipping was huge, but all in all it still cost less by weight than the other suppliers I could find, and it arrived super fast (faster than a lot of US auctions I've won).

[mpeel]

I felt knitted stuff in the washer all the time. Sometimes not on purpose. :)