A Handy Dandy Wet Felting Tool - The Felting Stone

After my (somewhat) whiny post from Monday, I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and just get busy. I have been felting up a storm! In the last couple of days, I've concentrated on wet felting some larger pieces which I will photograph and share eventually, but for today, I wanted to let you in on a great little felting tool that has really saved my hands from the anguish of wet felting lately. It is a felting stone, and it is fabulous!

As you can see in the photo, the felting stone fits in the palm of your hand. Unfortunately, that lovely hand in the photo is not my own. It actually belongs to looseends (a.k.a. Melissa) on flickr. I thought that it was such a nice photo that I certainly could not do better taking one of my own so I borrowed it for my post and according to flickr's Creative Commons license. A big thank you to Melissa for her lovely photo of this useful little tool.

It is small, but certainly handy and time saving. As you can see from the photo, it has rows of ridges that increase the friction when rubbed against your wool during wet felting. I do suggest that you wait to use it when the wool has a top layer of skin formed or is at a the medium or mid-felted range so that it does not tangle in the loose wool fibers. It makes quick work of the latter stages of wet felting and also saves your hands from getting roughed up.

I purchased mine from Mielke's Fiber Arts, but you can also get it from Halcyon Yarn where Melissa purchased hers. At the time I purchased the felting stone, I also purchased a plastic felting mat which has proven to be quite useful and time saving too. I recommend it as well, and it is very inexpensive so it won't break the bank, but it hopefully will improve your felting.

Happy felting! I hope to have some photos of my newly felted items to show you soon. Right now, I'm a feltmaking fanatic though so as soon as I slow down a bit, I'll take some photos to post.

Yummy Wool Roving from Bath, Maine

It is yet another post about a fiber excursion during my Maine vacation, but it is certainly worth your attention if you love yarns, wool, roving, or anything fiber. My husband and I drove to Bath, Maine, on an outing one day. We visited the Maine Maritime Museum which was well worth the time. I also wanted to stop by Halcyon Yarns, which I had thought was just a small, local shop.

We had almost given up on finding it when we spotted the small sign for it on our way out of town. It was in a building complex and didn't look like much from the outside with no real storefront that I could see, but it was quite a surprise on the inside! It had yarns, roving, and fiber supplies from floor to ceiling - and a very high ceiling I might add. There was everything a fiber lover could ever want or need. I wish that I was able to shop a little longer there. Although, I did manage to sign up for their mailing list, get a free catalog, and buy a few ounces of roving (as seen in the photo). If you are anywhere near Bath, Maine, and a fiber lover, it is worth a trip to visit this place, or visit their website and order a catalog.