felted nests

A farmer sells wool roving and rainbow colored wool bits at our local farmers market. The art club made felted nests for their knit chickens. Felting with kids is great. They really get into working with wool and warm soapy water. If you can't find an obvious place to purchase raw wool, contact a specialty weaving or knitting store in your area.

I like to felt with kids outside. Use buckets of warm soapy water (I use Joy dish soap) and submerge the wool batting until saturated. The nest batting is made of several layers of wool roving pulled to about four inches -- each layer of wool alternating grain directions. Felting the nests takes about ten to fifteen minutes of rubbing pressure with your hands. You will need a firm surface. I worked on an outdoor table (you can use cookie sheets on the ground or a washboard is great if you have one). Shaping can occur by gently applying pressure with thumbs to create a nest as you felt. Most of the kids came up with fairly flat wool pieces which we later shaped into nests by drying in a bowl position over the top of croquet balls. I also had to give the felted nests a few hand stiches after they were dry to really get them looking tight. The clumps of raw colored wool should be added bit by bit throughout the felting process (adding too much too soon can inhibit the felting of the wool batting). With your fingers detangle the raw wool and seperate the wool fibers before adding them to the nest. After felting has occured run the nests under cold water to get the soap out and finish the felting. The nests will take several days to dry, or you can speed up the process and tighted the felt by putting them in the dryer.