Learning to Wet Felt

The spinning guild I belong to also has programs on other aspects of fiber.  Tonight we learned to wet felt using some beautiful wool.  I chose a luscious orangy, almost terra cotta color.  This is the first step to completing a pair of felted mittens.

First we laid our thin layers of carded wool in three layers, the grain facing opposite directions.

 The batting is sandwiched between a layer of plastic and bubble wrap, and netting. 

Then soapy water is poured on it so that the whole batt soaks it up, while you massage it in thoroughly.

 

 Gently roll it up and tie.  Roll it back and forth slowly like rolling a jelly roll. 

 

After the final rolling, unroll and determine if all the areas look done.

Bunch it up and drop it in a bin until it is evenly dimpled.

 

Rinse the soap out and hang to dry.

 

The next step is cutting the mittens out of the felted wool...

I'm excited to make some alpaca felt, incorporating some ideas that I've seen and making corsets or wedding gown bodices of it.