What's On the Felting Table

This is an almost finished large scarf/wrap. I used this beautiful 70/30 merino/silk roving that I bought in WI a couple of weeks ago at River's Edge Fiber Arts. The colorway is Peacock and it has blues, lights and darks. I added merino wool in teal and navy as well as a significant amount of "carbon" merino wool (it shows up as brown in the picture. The pic is not very well lit as it is taken in my basement felting studio. Since my basement has a concrete floor which can get wet it is very convenient for wet felting. This scarf has beautiful dreadlocks, short and long. I finally have a method for achieving the full and wavy dreads that I most love. There is almost a pound of wool in this wrap. Its very warm and will be beautiful over denim. Love it! I'm just sad 'cuz I checked River's Edge website and I cannot get any more of this wool.

Today's Project

I started creating this dreads scarf a few days ago. My thought in laying out the wool for this one is to create a more random weave rather than the grid. The dreads will hang from all 4 sides. Over the next couple of days I will wet it and begin the felting process. Because of its size it will take a couple of days to roll.

Perfecting Wool Projects

One of my goals for next year is working on perfecting a type of felted wool art project. I have been making several of my "dreads" scarves and trying different lengths, widths and manners of laying out wool. Here is my latest creation. I am very satisfied with the way it turned out. In laying out the wool I have pulled apart the long lengths so that they are very thin and airy.

The cross pieces have been woven in and out of the longer lengths. The important factor is to vary the weave so that the grid in not uniform. My next scarf is going to be layed out on the diagonal which I think will have an interesting effect on the dreds and the ability to make the scarf grid more varied.

I have also been working on the perfect length of scarf. For this dread scarf there are two measurements that are important -- the body of the scarf (the solid part) and then the length and width that the dreads add to the scarf. On a tall person (5'6" and up) the measurement that works best is at least 80 inches in the scarf body and then about 40 inches additional in dreds. The scarf pictured here (a Christmas present) is 120 inches in total lenght (10 feet). When wrapped around as a scarf the dreads are not too long and when used as a wrap the body of the scarf is sufficiently long to stay over the shoulder if desired.