I’d already wet it before I remembered to take a photo. Same process as the last scarf using Merino wool and recycled sari silk fibres and rovings onto hand dyed silk chiffon.

This ended up brighter than I’d originally intended but pale colours just didn’t make it sing in the same way as brights do.

I love the ends. Again, I didn’t want a straight edge and the flowers both break the straight line and add some weight to the scarf.

Problem is, I don’t have a name for this one. Suggestions anyone?

I laid Merino/Silk blend fibres along the edge and along the length of the scarf in collections of circles, some within others.

I wanted to continue off the end of the fabric so that it didn’t finish with a straight edge. Continuing with the circle theme I laid it out then put a second layer of bubble wrap over the top then flipped it over so I could add more circles on the reverse. Once the fibres were through the fabric I heated it all up and began throwing until I achieved this.

It’s very summery. The original idea was to do this in red, white and blue so it’d be ‘Jubilee’ colours without being a flag. This didn’t work for me and I have to say I’m very pleased with the colours used.

My daughter thinks it looks like sea foam especially along the edge. Do you agree? What would you name it?

This is always the trickiest part, the choosing of the colours. We began by creating two samples, one on cotton muslin and one on a synthetic fabric. This allowed people to try a few ideas and also to see how different fabrics gave different textures when nuno felted.

Sue’s first sample on synthetic fabric. Lovely colours.

Mich spent ages creating this beautiful sample on cotton muslin and it includes a cut in the fabric.

Claire was trying out the effects of varying amounts of fibre on the fabric. Working in different colours helped to identify where one weight ended and another began.

Janette very bravely tried both rovings and more synthetic fabric onto her synthetic sample. Some of the samples were very beautiful but what they enabled everyone to do was to identify what they liked about each one and which elements they’d like to include in their finished scarf. I find this approach is very helpful, especially if you have new felters in the group.

This is Sue’s scarf with a synthetic fabric strips and lace included. It has Wensleydale curls on the end and you can see the ends have also been shaped into points.

Created by Stephanie and inspired by her drive across from Cheshire. Merino fibres with silk and soya fibre embellishment. Everyone loved it.

Here is Tracy’s scarf laid out ready for felting. You can see that the ends are shaped and also that there’s a line of fibre before the edge of the fabric. As the wool felts it’ll create a slight frill along the edge of the scarf.

Tracy was very game to model it whilst it was still wet and the photo doesn’t do it justice.

Susan created this and you’d never believe it was her first piece of felt would you. I think she did incredibly well, the white circle was inspired and finished the design off well. I also like the cut leaf  on the end.

Janette’s scarf has lace along the ends as well as in the body, boucle yarn along the edges and has a definite romantic feel to it. Just beautiful. Finally, I must thank Janette and Tracy without whom there’d have been no photos to show you. Thanks ladies.

The scarves are long enough to be tied around the neck but you can see the blue one had a slit cut into it to form a hole, which allows the scarf to be fastened by threading through itself. We used cotton muslin and merino fibres and finished with silk fibre decoration. If you can’t see the silk it’s because it tends not to shine whilst still wet.

The mittens are silk chiffon with merino wool and silk decoration. With the muslin you get a larger texture than with the silk chiffon. I thought it would be useful for people to work with two fabrics to understand the different effects that using different fabrics gives to nuno felt. Didn’t they do well?

I thought it was also an opportunity to try out a new design idea for a neck warmer or short scarf. I carded together yellow, blue and green fibres which I laid out over white silk chiffon. Between the silk chiffon and the fibres I trapped a number of flowers. The flowers are the recycling element which I know Kate will apprecate as they came from an old net curtain. I spent hours one weekend (to bewildered looks from Hubby) cutting out all the flowers before I threw the remainder away as it was damaged.

The scarf is floral on one side and coloured on the other. I was hoping Kate would be pleased with her pressie but I needn’t have worried for she seemed delighted when I handed it over.

I’m now left wondering whether to make more in this style. The floral theme with the recycling element appeals to me but I’m not sure if it would be everyones cup of tea. Thoughts?

In addition to working with Rutsuko’s techniques I’d challenged myself to work in naturals just because I rarely do so. I had gone armed with, a natural grey and a 100s superfine white Merino and bits of yarn, ramie and spare fabric. The first difference of the day was the availability of silk organza as the fabric for the scarf. I had taken silk chiffon but thought I’d give the fabric from Rutsuko a go. the silk organza has more body than the silk chiffon and is Rutsuko’s fabric of choice.

Step one was to make some pre-felt to cut up and use in the sample scarf. I normally use the width of my hand to pull the fibres from the tops and then lay two layers of fibre, the first horizontal the second vertical. We were advised to lay out two layers of diagonal fibres. No wet and set stage but a small number of rolls increasing in quantity and pressure until we have a pre-felt. Now I don’t make the softest pre-felt (part made felt) in the world but even I was surprised at what Rutsuko considered a pre-felt. We rolled until there was no movement left in the fibres, a stage so late that some people would actually have finished felting at this point!

Then we began to lay out the scarf. All around the edge we put two diagonal layers of fibres then laid on our designs using our pre-felts, yarns etc. We were all very keen to make a flower using Rutsuko’s technique and as usual I had a yarn that I didn’t know the composition of and decided to experiment with it anyway. You perhaps can’t tell from the photo but it was quite hairy which is the main reason I wouldn’t use it again. It only stuck where I used a few fibres to attach it so that tells me it wasn’t pure wool either. I still really like this scarf and it is wearable. I love the natural grey merino which felted quickly.

We rolled and rolled and rolled until there was no movement in the fibres at all and it was even beginning to shrink a little. Then we heated it up and rolled it just in our towels. This fulling (hardening) process made it shrink quite quickly as we continued to add hot water (or dip into hot water) between each set of rolls. Things really got wet at this point, it’s a process that could easily be done on the draining board at home so at least all that water would have somewhere to go. Only after all this was finished was it time to cut the flower and shape the petals. The flower and the leaf lattice at the other end are my favourite parts of this scarf.

When it was time to make a scarf on day two I knew I wanted two flowers, some lattice work and to add more texture but I also decided just to work in white and on silk chiffon this time.

Along the edges I added Ramie fibres and curly kid Mohair. In the centre are some plastic rings wrapped with lambswool yarn and trapped under scrim with a little fancy yarn on top. The lattice is made from strips of fibre but twisted a few times. I wouldn’t normally twist the fibres but you can’t tell from the finished item that I have.

Could I have made this scarf using my usual techniques? – yes. I don’t think I learnt a huge amount on adding effects and finishes to my scarves but the techniques used to achieve them were new and interesting. I would adopt some of the techniques in some instances and I really enjoyed working with someone from a different culture and with so much experience. Rutsuko shared her knowledge willingly and with a mastery of English that I could never hope to emulate in Japanese. It was also wonderful to give myself entirely to making felt and to focus on design and techniques without, wondering if the washing was ready to hang out yet, having a cat walk on it or being distracted by the fridge. I feel like it’s refocused me on thinking about what I do not just doing.

I really thought my husband would like these scarves as they’re so restrained but he surprised me by saying they were wishy washy. It hasn’t put me off, I still think they’re great.

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I also ran a felt for Christmas workshop but for some strange reason didn’t get any decent photos. However I was very pleased to receive the following feedback

Kathrine said “Just a quick message to say thank you so much for such an enjoyable and inspiring day. I have really wanted to do felting for ages and your workshop today has wetted my appetite for doing it even more, I just loved working with the wools and threads, you really gave us a wonderful day, thank you so much!”

Kirsty said “Thanks for a great workshop today. Everyone at home was impressed with what I had produced!”

How very kind of people to let me know they’ve enjoyed the workshops.