Nuno Felting

I've become somewhat enamored with Nuno felting.  After making the wraps this past summer and realizing how quickly they can be made (and already having a good assortment of roving to choose from), I decided to make scarves for Christmas for various relatives.  I soon learned that while the Corriedale wool felted amazingly and quickly, the other wools that I have were not the best for felting, even if they are awesome colors.  I suppose it could also have been something to do with the quality of the silk, not being as airy and open as the silk used for the wraps too.

When I made the wraps over the summer, I posted a bit of a tutorial on how I made them.  I got some finished 8"x54" scarves from Dharma Trading and invited the local crafters to come and learn how to Nuno felt and kick off my Christmas felting frenzy.  We all followed the same instructions, and I really have nothing to add or change about them, except that when doing the scarves one at a time, since they're so much smaller than the wraps, rolling the bubble wrap up around a wine bottle to roll around works well.  I mostly made them two at a time though, and rolling them up with a bottle is not so good then.  I made eight scarves for family this year.  Eight!  While it is a heck of a lot faster and easier than knitting them, it does take a bit of a toll on the wrists, and these take quite a bit of rolling before they are adequately felted.

Each scarf only took a couple of hours to felt, so they all took an afternoon and only the couple with the extra yarn needle felted on them took extra time.  I needle felted the yarn on afterward instead of adding it into the felting, which you can do, because it just didn't look finished when I was done with the Nuno part.  I let the yarn curl around however it wanted to, helping it out a bit here and there, but not really designing it myself.  I like how it looks needle felted on afterward as opposed to being a part of the laminate.

For the designing process, the first few were not really designed.  I slapped the wool onto the center of the scarf in varying directions and felted it that way.  I like the fan motifs, as you can see from the white wraps, so I did one of those next.  The rest of them were mostly based on ideas from my fellow felters, as they were in general more artsy than I.  The fringe along the edge of the scarf was more from knit scarves I've seen, and I thought it might work well.  I like it, and the recipient does too.  The squares were a motif placed by a friend, and I liked it so much I used it as well, and made one for me afterward.  The large "X" motif was also inspired by a friend.

For closeups, see Flickr

All in all, I really hope that the recipients enjoy their artsy scarves.  They're 100% wool around a base of 100% silk, and actually quite soft and surprisingly warm.  I don't consider them to be great works of art, but then again, I am not an artist so these are pretty gosh darn good for a layperson who hasn't studied art since eighth grade.

Deer in the Headlights - that's me!