DIY Network

Handiwork: Felted Pincushion From "Uncommon Threads" episode DUCT-133

Lucy Wacksman shows how to make a felted pincushion using colored fleece that she wraps into a ball and wet-felts. Then she'll show how to form the ball into the right size. Once the felted fleece is dry, she'll cut it open to reveal the rings of color and create the pincushion.

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Felted Pincushions

Most quilters don't have dyed wool lying around the house. This would be a good project to go in on with a couple friends; you can share the dyed roving and each make your own pincushion!

Anyone who does laundry has probably accidentally shrunk a wool sweater in the wash. So really, everyone knows what's needed to shrink (i.e., felt) wool: heat, water and movement. For this project, we're going to be doing it on purpose.

Some notes on wool from Lucy Wacksman's spinning/weaving mother:

• Work with clean fleece. If you acquire raw fleece, be sure to scour it (that's felting talk for washing thoroughly but gently in hot soapy water) before felting. Check www.interweavepress.com for several good books on spinning with information about processing fleece and dying wool fleece.
  
  
• If there's a weaving or spinning guild in your area, check with them, as they may have a local source for fleece. Local spinners would probably shower you with fleece if you asked.
  
  
• The breed of sheep's fleece determines how well it will felt. Lincoln Longwool will not felt well, but Merino felts very easily. Most fleece, white as well as natural colored (brown and black), will felt; short crimpy wool felts much easier than long, lustrous wool.

Materials:

approximately 4 oz. wool (carded, dyed fleece) (This will produce a medium-sized pincushion; add more for a larger one or less for a smaller one. There's nothing precise about this project!)
bucket or big mixing bowl
hot water
rubber gloves (optional)
old pantyhose or knee-highs
dishwashing soap/gel
old towel
serrated knife
any embellishments you'd like to add (ribbon, beads--be creative!)

1. Start out with a piece of fleece about the size of a large cotton ball (figure A).

2. Use "strips" of fleece (figure B) in a size that is comfortable to you and wrap layers of color around the fleece ball you will be creating. It is sort of the motion of winding a ball of yarn, but with something the width of four fingers instead of a thin strand of yarn. You want the fibers to crisscross. Don't spend time trying to make each layer precise, as when we start to squeeze and felt the ball, everything will move in its own direction.

Figure A

Figure B

3. Continue wrapping the fleece layers until you have something a bit larger than a softball. (You can wrap colored wool yarns in the layers as well; just make sure it isn't nonfelting wool like SuperWash).

Optional: An easy way to embellish the outside of the felted pincushion is to wrap some wool yarn around the fleece ball at this point. (Hey, wool yarn will felt too!) A contrasting color to the outer layer will look good; just use whatever you have in your stash or unravel some of that wool sweater that you can't wear anymore after you shrunk it!

4. Stuff the fleece ball in the toe of some old pantyhose or knee-highs and tie a knot at the open end (figure C).

5. Fill the bucket/bowl with as-hot-as-it-can-get tap water. Add about a nickel-sized dollop of dishwashing soap and swizzle it around.

6. Wearing rubber gloves (remember, that water is hot), submerge the felt ball into the water and gently squeeze it as if you were hand-washing a delicate sweater. It will feel like this fleece ball has no shape at all. After 5-10 minutes you should see the wool fibers start to creep through the pantyhose, and the "ball" should feel firmer and be getting smaller.

7. Once you feel like the pantyhose are going to get felted into the ball, take the ball out of the water and gently squeeze the excess water out. Transfer to the folded old towel (on a surface that can get wet, like the kitchen counter).

8. Remove the pantyhose: snip just below the knot you tied and gently pull the pantyhose away from the felted ball. At this point the fibers should be felted enough that the ball isn't going to fall apart (figure D).

Figure C

Figure D

9. Start rolling around the felt ball on the towel with firm pressure. We want to get it into a tube shape--about the size of a can of soup. Rolling it back and forth, you should start to really feel it firm up.

Optional: If you want to get extra felting going on at this point, place it in a zippered pillowcase cover (just to keep any fuzz from clogging up your washing machine), toss it in the washing machine with an old pair of jeans or towels and wash on the hot water cycle.

Figure E

10. Once it feels quite firm, you have to wait for it to dry. You could throw it in the dryer with some old jeans or towels to speed up this process.

11. Once it's dry (and really you just have to be patient and guess, since the outside will dry the fastest), figure out how tall you want the pincushion and make two cuts (as if you were slicing cookies from the cookie-dough tubes); 2" should be the minimum height so pins don't poke through the bottom (figure E).

Embellish:
The felted pincushions look lovely as is! But if you are an embellisher, then have at it! Tie a simple ribbon around the pincushion or sew some beads on--whatever is your cup of tea.

Sources for natural-colored and dyed wool fleece:
Since most people don't have local shops that carry raw wool fleece, do a search online for places to order. See the Resources list, below, for suggestions.

If you're not comfortable that you're ordering the right thing, order from a place where you can talk to a person and describe what you want to do. Make sure you get fleece that will felt for you!

If there's a weaving or spinning guild in your area, check with them, as they may have a local source for fleece. See the Resources list for a site that lists local guilds.

RESOURCES :

To order raw wool fleece, click on any of these links:
www.yarn.com (Choose yarn, then scroll to spinning fibers.)
www.treenwaysilks.com (Choose Ashford products, then wool fibre & carding.)
www.weirdolls.com (Choose Felting and roving.)
www.outbackfibers.com(Choose Outback fibers.

For a list of local guilds, click on the link below
www.weavespindye.org

GUESTS :

Lucy Wacksman
Website: www.threadconnection.com