Felted Owl

Making An owl:

For the owl, we will start by making a white cylinder. Break off a length of white wool about the length of your hand.

Roll it between your hands as you would roll a ball of playdough into a snake.

Once the wool is in the snake shape/ cylinder shape you can start stabbing it with the large felting needle.

Be slow and deliberate with your stabbing in the beginning, and concentrate, working to compact the wool into a tight cylinder

You will soon see that this stabbing holds the wool in place and your snake will not unravel if you let it go, but it will get more compact. You may need to add new pieces of wool to your cylinder if it gets out of the rounded cylinder shape. When you are happy with your cylinder and it is fairly compacted and firm, we will start on the face.

Next, Take some of the grey/brown wool and separate out about a pencil width . Roll this with your fingers into a rope, twisting it and pulling slightly so it gets thinner but stays together in a rope.

On the white cylinder, choose where the face will go, and make half a heart, use the large felting needle to tack the heart in place (felt it down, but you do not need to totally felt it in place yet. Make the second side of the heart, and also tack that down. If you are happy, you can completely felt the heart onto the cylinder. If not, this is the time to pull it off and readjust, or start over.

Now, the head and wings, Take the same grey/brown and get enough wool to cover the head, and down the back of the owl to the bottom of the cylinder, start to felt that on from top of the head to the bottom. You can add more wool if you have any bare spots and fill in. Cover the entire top and back of the head, as well as the entire back of the owl.

To make the spots on the chest, take little pencil eraser sized pieces of wool, and roll them in the palms of your hands to slightly felt them. When they are holding together on their own, carefully felt them onto the owls chest. Some of my smaller ones got lost inside the owl, so there needs to be a balance between too big and too small.

Now, using the grey brown, or black wool, roll a slight larger than a pencil eraser ball (you will need 2) in your hands for the eyes. Put these where they fit best, and felt carefully, then add a white dot for the pupil.

Using some white or light grey, pull out a pencil sized amount like you did for the face and make a rope, pulling and twisting the fiber so it stay together. This is going to be the wings on the back. Felt those into place.

That is it for the design, now you can add in any additional embellishment, add a ribbon for a hanger if this an ornament and you can use the smaller needles to help finish up any spots that seem to have large holes from the felting needle.

As you go, use your fingers to smooth out those holes as well and you will see the wool smooth out and start to look like a professional made it.

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Felted pumpkins

Making A Pumpkin:

For the pumpkin, we will start by making a white ball. Break off a length of white wool roving about the length of your hand.

Roll it between your hands as you would roll a ball of playdough into a snake.

Roll the wool ‘snake’ into a tight, fat, spiral, like a cinnamon bun. The tighter you can get it, the easier it will be to felt. The fatter your spiral, the rounder your ball will be.

Once the wool is in the spiral you can start stabbing it with the large felting needle.

Be slow and deliberate with your stabbing in the beginning, and concentrate, working to compact the wool into a tight ball.

You will soon see that this stabbing holds the wool in place and your spiral will not unravel if you let it go.

Next, take some of the orange roving, about the length of your hand from wrist to fingertips, and cover the white ball with the orange roving. It may look a little like dumpling.

Cover light spots or fill in divots or holes.

Start to stab the orange wool into place on top of the white, and shaping pumpkin as you go. It is easy to add additional pieces of orange wool to cover white spots. You are done when the orange wool is smooth and does not come apart.

To make the ‘segments’ of your pumpkin, Take enough embroidery thread tat goes around your ball at least 3 times.

Working with the thread, wrap the pumpkin up like putting gift wrap on a present. When you are happy with the number of segment, pull the thread tight enough that the pumpkin segments bulge out between the pieces of thread. Tie the thread tightly. At this stage it is easy to adjust the thread so that your segments are even.

If necessary clean up your pumpkin with additional felting.

Now we will make the green stalk and little leaf and twirly vine. Break off a little piece of green wool about the size of your little finger, about half an inch long. Roll it in your hands as you would a ball of playdough into a snake.

Tightly roll this ‘snake’ up into a tight, thin, spiral. Still holding onto your small green spiral tightly, and using the medium or small needle, felt it along the outside of the spiral… all around until it is a tight stalk. Leave one end fluffy. Carefully needle felt the other end flat.

To attach the stalk to your pumpkin, needle felt the fluffy end into the orange, indented, top of your pumpkin, trying to avoid the thread that has made the segments.

To make the leaf, take baby-fingernail sized piece of green wool into a small ball. Needle felt it onto your orange pumpkin.

To make the twirly vine, take an even smaller piece of green wool, roll it between the palms of your hands, pulling it longways, until it is a long thread-like length. Needle felt it onto your pumpkin.

String of Christmas Lights

For the Christmas lights, we will start by making a white cylinder. Break off a length of white wool about the length of your palm.

Roll it between your hands as you would roll a ball of playdough into a snake.

Once the wool is in the snake shape/ cylinder shape you can start stabbing it with the large felting needle.

Be slow and deliberate with your stabbing in the beginning, and concentrate, working to compact the wool into a pear shaped piece, with a knob at what will be the base.

Working with the base, stab deliberately where the base meets the larger base of the bulb. This will give the base definition. Don’t worry if the bulb looks like it will need more wool, you can add it later.

Working with the base, and carefully using the needle, continue to stab it and give it definition into a squat cylinder, as tall as it is wide. When you are happy with the base, start moving up into the base, and shape bulb, so that is wide at the bottom and tapers at the top.

You can add more wool as needed to get the shape right.

When your shape is right, start covering it with your choice of the colored wool. Taking pieces, pull them apart and start tacking the new wool onto the bulb. Keep felting the colored pieces until they are smooth and covering the bulb part of the light.

Take your choice of the base of the bulb and use small amounts to cover the base of the bulb. Take care to keep the two colors separate, so that the base and the bulb do not look like they are merging in color. (don’t let the colors mix)

If you have holes from your felting needles, you can switch to a smaller finer needle as you finish up. Also, use your fingers to smooth out the wool and get it smooth for a professional look.

When finished with that one, make a whole bunch more! When finished with those, take the striped string and a yarn needle, thread the string through the base of the lights and hang to show it off.