Make felt balls

I have a vague memory of making rainbow coloured felt balls as a child. I remember having lots of fun making them, but then once they were done, thinking what exactly do I DO with a felt ball? How is this actually going to be useful in my life? But now, oh my gosh. I have IDEAS of what to do with them. While looking at Instagram the other day, I saw that Elsie from A Beautiful Mess mentioned on instagram stories about how she buys wool balls on etsy, puts drops of essential oils on them and puts them in the drier to make her clothes smell nice. Well, what better motivation to have a go at making them again, especially as we have a drier!

 I actually had no idea how to make a felt ball, but if you're new to working with wool, there are a few basic principles about felting. If you had hot water, soap, and lots of agitation, you're going to make wool felt. So with this in mind, I put together what turned out to be a successful recipe for making felt balls. It's so nice when a plan comes together!

 Get some wool. It doesnt matter if it's carded or not, because youre going to pull at it so all the fibres are seperated. Remember it will shrink down a bit in size once the ball is complete.

 I popped my wool into a stocking, just to protect my hands from the hot water, and to hold the shape. Then dip it into scalding hot water, and rub a bar of soap (just plain hand soap) over the stocking. Dip in to the hot water again, and then squeeze the water out. Then roll it between your hands. Take it out of the stocking and roll roll roll in circular motions. It will feel like a soft pliable ball to start with but slowly gets more and more solid.

Once it was firm enough, and the loose ends were gone, I dipped them in clean hot water, squeezed out the excess and then put them out to dry.

Ooh there's nothing like the smell of fresh wool. And they are pretty enough to be decorative! I took two of the wool balls and put drops of lavender, bergamot and ylangylang essential oils and threw them in the drier. To be honest, the clothes didn't pick up the scent. I'll give it another go, but thought that actually, they could work in a closet or clothes drawer. and wouldn't a whole lot of little balls in different colours make a cute garland to hang on the wall? Or different sizes to hang on a mobile? Or as christmas tree decorations (an alternative to a plastic bauble)? So many possibilities!

Dyeing naturally - avocado pips and lady's bedstraw

They say the fun thing about natural dyes is trying different plants yourself and experimenting with colour. This dye pot started out as an absolute disaster - but ended up producing a really pretty peachy pink which I'm absolutely thrilled with! The colour of candy floss.

Today I thought it would be a good idea to include a step by step of how the whole natural dye process works. Keep in mind that I'm not an expert! Just writing from personal experience.

First, prepare your wool. What I'm using is carded, as per last time. But you could use spun wool, or fabric, particularly cotton or linen - natural dyes could produce some beautiful sheets, tablecloths or cloth napkins. Even wool straight from the sheep could be fine to use (washed first), as long as you were careful not to let it felt. If you are using wool, weighing it is a good idea, especially if you are using a particular pattern for your project. I weighed up 5 ounces (150gram) which will be enough for a small project. Each textile will produce a different colour, and each time you dye will likely produce a different shade of colour.

 Lots of people say to add wool after the dye has simmered, so that it doesn't felt. Surely this would result in a much less vibrant colour? Personally, I roughly sew a bag out of muslin or old cotton sheet, with a small pocket with string encased around one end to use as a drawstring, then evenly distribute the wool inside. As long as you use a low simmer and don't agitate or stir the bag, just turning it over a couple of times during the process to absorb the dye evenly, the wool won't felt.

 Add the bag or your fabric to lukewarm water, the temperature of a baby's bath. This means the wool won't get a shock. Add your ingredient and bring to a simmer. Simmering for about 40 minutes releases the dye.

 After reading somewhere on the internet that you could produce a pale pink dye by simmering whole avocado pips, I collected 5 fresh avocado pips and attempted dyeing with them. Well... that pot simmered for an hour and a half and the water was still as clear as when it came out of the tap!

 Not to be deterred, the search was on for other things that produce a pink dye. Mum is an avid gardener and can identify most plants. After going through a list of natural pink dyes, she pulled some lady's bedstraw right out of the garden. We discarded the leaves and stems, hosed down the roots to clean the soil off and added them to the dye pot.

 40 minutes later, the bag had turned coral pink! I took the pot off the heat and let it sit overnight, before rinsing it out twice with lukewarm water and spinning it on gentle in the washing machine. Afterward it was layed out on a towel to dry outside.

 The colour is vibrant and the wool is absolutely beautiful. Success!

Dying wool naturally - eucalyptus

 When I first started spinning, my parents gifted me with a large bundle of carded white wool from the sheep on dad's farm. I believe it's a sort of romney mix. It's soft, only a little coarse, and comes up beautifully fluffy and white when washed.

I've recently become interested in using plants as a natural dye. My bible when it comes to fleece, spinning and dyeing is 'The New Zealand woolcraft book', by Constance Jackson and Judith Plowman. It was printed in 1983, but is the most informative, helpful book that is available on the subject (in my opinion, anyway!) They talk about using mordants (chemicals which influence the colour) but I wanted to just use a plant itself as a really 'back to basics' method.

 The plant I decided to use was a eucalyptus (gum) tree. One with rounder, rather than long, leaves. I gathered semi dried leaves, ripped them up, crushed the twigs, and put them in a quickly sewn cotton bag. The bag was added into a large soup pot half full of water and left to steep for 3 days. I then brought it to a simmer for a few hours on the stove, and let it cool. The wool was soaked in warm water for half an hour, and then added to the soup pot, which then was brought to a simmer for another few hours. I let it cool, and then rinsed and dried the wool. It's light and fluffy, doesn't smell like anything, really, and is now this interesting golden colour. I was expecting more of an orange, and don't know how colourfast it will be, but I'm excited to spin it! The next thing is - what to make? and what natural dye to try next?

Above - naturally dyed wool. Below - (the before) washed undyed wool.