When we think of wool, we automatically think of jumpers, blankets, for insulation furnishings and rugs, but wool has many more uses than that.

The art of wet felting is ancient, and dates back to 6500BC but needle felting is relatively modern, becoming fashionable in the 1950s and again in the 1980s.

After shearing, the wool is cleaned, and spun into wool for knitting or weaving.

Wool for felting is similar but instead of being spun it is either “carded” into spongy sheets with the fibres laying in all directions, or combed into smooth longer lengths all lying in the same direction. These are called tops or roving.

The different breeds of sheep produce wool with varied characteristics, and not all breeds will felt well, or give the finish we require. Merino, prepared as wool tops is popular for felting as it produces a quickly made, soft useful felt. It dyes well and is popular with crafters. The hardier sheep, used to life on the hillside, outdoors in all weather, will produce a wool that is coarse, water resistant, windproof and itchy to the skin. They often take longer to felt but are very hard wearing. These wools are best kept for mid or top layer clothing, bags and household items.

Wool tops with combed fibres which all lay in the same direction are popular with wet felters and shorter carded batts are popular with needle felters. It is possible to combine both types of wool and both methods of felting in one piece. I have even combined several different wools recently in a project requiring a lot of texture. The nature of the work meant that it didn’t matter if the different wools felted together at different times or amount of shrinkage, as it accentuated the textures required in the project…

Once a fleece has been washed, to remove dirt and debris, then prepared by carding, it is often combed and sometimes dyed prior to use.

The wool is then laid out in “shingles” overlapping each other for a required number of layers, then embellished (decorated).

A piece of net is placed over the dry wool and warm soapy water is sprinkled over the top. Wool fibre has small scales along its length rather like human hair, and the action of warm water, soap (which is alkaline) and subsequent rubbing causes the fibres to tangle together gradually forming a strong bond.

Each strand of wool fibre has tiny scales similar to human hair. When water is added the scales soften enabling them to entangle more easily with neighbouring fibres.

As we work the wool, it will shrink and matt tightly together and we must take this into account when planning a project. Many wools will shrink up to 50% during the felting process.

Once we have felted our work the required amount according to our preferences and the final use of the piece, it is necessary to wash the wool well and finally soak in vinegar to correct the ph balance once again. Omitting this stage will result in very smelly felt.

As wool has a memory, it can now be shaped and dried into its final shape.

The felt can be used as it is or embroidered to add further details. Many felters also prefer to add more details and textures by needle felting onto the dried felt.

Needle felting is similar to wet felting only in that the wool fibres matt together to form a dense fabric held together by the fibres themselves.

Whereas wet felting is created using water, soap and friction on the wool, in needle felting we use sharp barbed needles to stab the wool fibres causing them to hold together. If you turn a piece of needle felt over you can easily see the fibres sticking through the backing cloth.

Different needles come with varying numbers of barbs. The more barbs, the quicker the felting but less barbs will give you more accuracy with fine detail work.

Needle felting is popular with crafters to produce pictures, and 3d figures.