If you do; where do you get your supplies from?
Neith? Luanne? I know both of you have tried your hands at this..
PS...If you know how to add handles to the bag let me know....haha
Thanks for your help!
Anyone into felting?
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Luly
Anyone into felting?
I am finishing up on my first crochet bag and really want to felt something on the front. I have no supplies but expect to add this as a staple to some of the work..
If you do; where do you get your supplies from?
Neith? Luanne? I know both of you have tried your hands at this..
PS...If you know how to add handles to the bag let me know....haha
Thanks for your help!
If you do; where do you get your supplies from?
Neith? Luanne? I know both of you have tried your hands at this..
PS...If you know how to add handles to the bag let me know....haha
Thanks for your help!
-
neith
Re: Anyone into felting?
Here was my reply to your PM, maybe others want the info, too? 
And for handles, you can always stitch them on with matching yarn, etc There's no set rules!
______________
For needles, I wound up buying the Clover tool that takes 5 needles at once and helps you work faster... the refills are the best price for the needles and you can use them solo or with the 5 needle plunger tool Sometimes the chains have these in stock... our Super Joann sold the tool and our AC Moore sold the refills... and Joann sells them both online.
For roving I find that local farms are the best buy... if you want a skein of hand dyed wool yarn it'll be like $30, but a huge fat ball of dyed roving is like $9 at the one nearest to me and they use strands of a few different colors that make a neat palette together or can be seperated for individual colors that you need... plus the one near me works some other materials in, like a wool/silk blend on the white and pale pink ball that I bought Yarn shops around here charged a ton more for roving and the craft chains. I did also buy a lot of mixed roving on Ebay from a local vendor who makes doll wigs from it and had a big lot of odds and ends including some curly mohair that can be fun to needle felt with I was planning to pick it up from her (about 40 mins from home) and she said she'd let me bring the girls to show them her craft, but then I was too sick so she wound up shipping them to me.
If it's yarn that you want, then I'd first hunt the color selections at your chain stores and shop the sales/coupons, then supplement the colors by hitting the smaller local yarn shops. They carry some brand name wool/wool blends for more money than the chains and often independently created yarns that are very costly.
Actually, on election day, we met a lady with a pin saying that even her alpaca was voting for Obama and we talked to her about the alpaca and how the girls had been learning about all the animals who produced wool, etc and she offered me a big pile of nice white roving, but I lost her number!
Oh... and did you know that you can use cookie cutters as needle felting molds? Any will do and can be worked on a foam block or directly on your bag... Clover also sells some silicone (?) molds that you work on a foam block or big old brush thing that they market... we grabbed two molds with coupons at the super joann and one has you creating a pile of rose petals and leaves then assembling them, the other was for a butterfly with all the little accent patterns to add on top of the wings and we used that on a gift for one of the girls' friends.
I really love hitting the one farm near us that has a mini yarn shop and always has a basket full of 6"-10" thick balls of roving with 2-5 colors per ball... got one incredible ball of various green shades, another with bright coral, deep turq, plurple, and, I think, teal? Another in black and white, etc... I used the bright coral + ball on a deep teal crochet'd passport style purse to help create a tropical reef scene for my mom... added in other colors and used our DK Eyewitness books to get photos of real tropical fish, coral, etc to create a seahorse, blue tang, and a neat fish with a bunch of colors that slowly fade from one to another along the length of its body, and used the curly fibers to help create a wavy shell with a 3-d pearl in it Not a purse I'd use, but it works for her!
___________
umm if any of that doesn't translate to english, let me know... i can't see very well right now, big migraine, dizzy, and on a few pain killers.
And for handles, you can always stitch them on with matching yarn, etc There's no set rules!______________
For needles, I wound up buying the Clover tool that takes 5 needles at once and helps you work faster... the refills are the best price for the needles and you can use them solo or with the 5 needle plunger tool Sometimes the chains have these in stock... our Super Joann sold the tool and our AC Moore sold the refills... and Joann sells them both online.
For roving I find that local farms are the best buy... if you want a skein of hand dyed wool yarn it'll be like $30, but a huge fat ball of dyed roving is like $9 at the one nearest to me and they use strands of a few different colors that make a neat palette together or can be seperated for individual colors that you need... plus the one near me works some other materials in, like a wool/silk blend on the white and pale pink ball that I bought Yarn shops around here charged a ton more for roving and the craft chains. I did also buy a lot of mixed roving on Ebay from a local vendor who makes doll wigs from it and had a big lot of odds and ends including some curly mohair that can be fun to needle felt with I was planning to pick it up from her (about 40 mins from home) and she said she'd let me bring the girls to show them her craft, but then I was too sick so she wound up shipping them to me.
If it's yarn that you want, then I'd first hunt the color selections at your chain stores and shop the sales/coupons, then supplement the colors by hitting the smaller local yarn shops. They carry some brand name wool/wool blends for more money than the chains and often independently created yarns that are very costly.
Actually, on election day, we met a lady with a pin saying that even her alpaca was voting for Obama and we talked to her about the alpaca and how the girls had been learning about all the animals who produced wool, etc and she offered me a big pile of nice white roving, but I lost her number!
Oh... and did you know that you can use cookie cutters as needle felting molds? Any will do and can be worked on a foam block or directly on your bag... Clover also sells some silicone (?) molds that you work on a foam block or big old brush thing that they market... we grabbed two molds with coupons at the super joann and one has you creating a pile of rose petals and leaves then assembling them, the other was for a butterfly with all the little accent patterns to add on top of the wings and we used that on a gift for one of the girls' friends.
I really love hitting the one farm near us that has a mini yarn shop and always has a basket full of 6"-10" thick balls of roving with 2-5 colors per ball... got one incredible ball of various green shades, another with bright coral, deep turq, plurple, and, I think, teal? Another in black and white, etc... I used the bright coral + ball on a deep teal crochet'd passport style purse to help create a tropical reef scene for my mom... added in other colors and used our DK Eyewitness books to get photos of real tropical fish, coral, etc to create a seahorse, blue tang, and a neat fish with a bunch of colors that slowly fade from one to another along the length of its body, and used the curly fibers to help create a wavy shell with a 3-d pearl in it Not a purse I'd use, but it works for her!
___________
umm if any of that doesn't translate to english, let me know... i can't see very well right now, big migraine, dizzy, and on a few pain killers.
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Lynn K
Re: Anyone into felting?
I have a purse made from "boiled wool" I think some people call it felting? I don't do it, but I LOVE my purse. it is really neat!!!
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Luanne
Re: Anyone into felting?
Luly, let me know what colors you want and i'll send you a package with some needles.
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Luly
Re: Anyone into felting?
Neith, I cant thank you enough for all your advice. I dont have anyone locally I can go to so I was looking online for who had the best deal.. More like a variety pack of roving since I am just starting out. I will be posting pictures as soon as it is done.
Thanks All!
Thanks All!
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neith
Re: Anyone into felting?
lemme know what colors luanne finds for you and what you still need i forget how i found the farm i go to, but it turned out to be one that i drove past a lot! i think i did a ton of google searches until i found a company that offers to comb and prepare wool from farms and give them the resulting roving and they had some links to farms that worked with them?
a lot of small farms will raise 1-2 kinds of wool producing animals and they may either make their own roving or know who else does... this woman does all the dying herself and uses some wool from her alpacas and mixes with other sources... i don't think she has sheep but she does have plenty of merino in her little shop... the shop isn't much bigger than my bathroom but has a bunch of homemade yarns, basic tools, small felting kits, and assorted finished products plus plenty of flyers about classes... she's also got a fridge at the entrance filled with farm fresh eggs, etc for sale and the first time we pulled in, we were surrounded by a dozen or two chickens before we could walk from the car to the door!
i've run into other people looking at the feltable wool yarns or felting books in the big chains around here and sent plenty to her farm but before i found her i couldn't seem to find roving anywhere (had tried to get it a few years ago after the kids made wet felted beads at a museum and then again after i started to see felting books pop up everywhere) and managed only to find small sample packs at yarn shops or single packs of the clover roving at the super joanne then smaller packs at ac moore eventually. The best price seems to be through small farms and of course, giving them my money feels better than handing it off to the big brands and chains
i forget how i found the farm i go to, but it turned out to be one that i drove past a lot! i think i did a ton of google searches until i found a company that offers to comb and prepare wool from farms and give them the resulting roving and they had some links to farms that worked with them?a lot of small farms will raise 1-2 kinds of wool producing animals and they may either make their own roving or know who else does... this woman does all the dying herself and uses some wool from her alpacas and mixes with other sources... i don't think she has sheep but she does have plenty of merino in her little shop... the shop isn't much bigger than my bathroom but has a bunch of homemade yarns, basic tools, small felting kits, and assorted finished products plus plenty of flyers about classes... she's also got a fridge at the entrance filled with farm fresh eggs, etc for sale and the first time we pulled in, we were surrounded by a dozen or two chickens before we could walk from the car to the door!
i've run into other people looking at the feltable wool yarns or felting books in the big chains around here and sent plenty to her farm
but before i found her i couldn't seem to find roving anywhere (had tried to get it a few years ago after the kids made wet felted beads at a museum and then again after i started to see felting books pop up everywhere) and managed only to find small sample packs at yarn shops or single packs of the clover roving at the super joanne then smaller packs at ac moore eventually. The best price seems to be through small farms and of course, giving them my money feels better than handing it off to the big brands and chains