Wool craft, one step at a time
Needle felting, wet felting and nuno felting — explained step by step, with the tools that are worth buying and the mistakes worth avoiding.
How the barbs actually work, which of the four needle gauges to reach for, how to hold and angle the needle, how to join one piece to another, and a first project that teaches all of it.
Read the guideSculpt wool into animals, figures and decorations with barbed needles. Start with the basics, then work up to armatures, faces and fine detail.
Warm water, soap and friction turn loose fibre into solid fabric. Learn layouts, shrinkage and resists for scarves, soaps, vessels and flat felt.
Felt merino through open-weave fabric to create light, drapey textiles. Fabric choice, fibre weight and migration, explained clearly.
Complete makes with photos at every stage — animals, flowers, ornaments and home decorations, sorted by how much experience they need.
Printable templates, measurements and shaping guides you can follow exactly, or adapt once you know what the shapes are doing.
The core techniques, one skill at a time — each written as a sequence you can follow at the table with wool in your hands.
Which needles, wool and mats are actually worth buying — what the gauges mean, what to skip, and what a starter kit really needs.
Fixes for the things that go wrong: fuzzy surfaces, broken needles, wool that will not felt, and shapes that refuse to hold.
The knitting side of working with wool — leaf patterns, casting on, needle sizes and knitting faster — including the pieces that go on to be felted.
Why leaves fall when they do, what a cobweb actually is, and the seasonal makes that follow from both.
What to do with the pumpkin once it is carved — cooking from fresh, including the parts most people throw away.
Felting turns loose wool into a solid fabric without weaving or knitting. Each wool fibre is covered in tiny scales, and when the fibres are pushed against each other the scales catch and lock, so the wool tangles tighter and tighter until it holds together on its own.
There are three main ways to do it. Needle felting uses barbed needles to tangle dry wool into 3D shapes such as animals and ornaments. Wet felting uses warm water, soap and rubbing to make flat felt, scarves, bowls and hats. Nuno felting works wool through an open-weave fabric like silk gauze to make light, drapey textiles. Shrinking a knitted wool sweater on purpose is called fulling, and it works the same way. Read the full guide to what felting is.
A symptom-by-symptom troubleshooting guide for nuno felting: wool that will not migrate through silk, wool that lifts after drying, bald patches, uneven ruffles, wavy edges, color bleeding, fabric that is not really silk, and how much nuno shrinks.
9 min read
How to make felted acorns the classic way, with real acorn caps: baking the caps to kill weevils, sizing a wool nut to each cap, gluing it with a hanging loop, and all-felt caps for when you have none. With a sizing table, garland spacing and ornament ideas.
9 min read Beginner
How to size, build and mount a felt tree topper: a two-layer or five-panel stuffed star, a felt angel on a cone, or a needle felted star, with the sleeve that fits over the top shoot and the stiffening that stops it drooping.
10 min read Intermediate
Felt snowflakes from a folded-paper template with six points, not eight: which felt holds open spokes, how to cut them cleanly, sizes and times, two-layer embroidered and beaded flakes, and spacing for a snowflake garland.
8 min read Beginner
Three ways to make a felt reindeer: a flat sewn ornament with stiff antlers and a Rudolph nose, a round reindeer face, and a needle felted standing reindeer on a wire frame. With a reindeer vs deer proportions table.
10 min read Intermediate
Small felt purses three ways: a coin purse and zip pouch sewn from 3 mm wool felt with no hems, a seamless wet felted purse with the resist math worked out, and a knitted purse felted in the washer. Closures, straps, needle felted decoration and care.
8 min read Intermediate
