Fiber Fridays: a Felted Future!

I am so excited, i can hardly contain myself. As if i didn’t have enough things to do in my “spare time” (of which, if you knew me personally, you’d know that i have none of due to my knack at filling every minute of the day with SOMETHING), i have picked up another hobby: felting! I fill my days with drawing, knitting, spinning, making soap and now another fiber art is taking over: needle felting. Needle felting combines my artistic skills with my interest in fiber, and is pretty much the most fun that i’ve had since i first picked up a colored pencil. Knitting and spinning are both relaxing and fascinating, but they lack the pure artistry of sculpture, which is essentially what needle felting is. There is even an element of danger: felting needs are SHARP! Band-aids required with this activity.

I have high hopes for my improving skills in this new medium. I’ve always been the type that catches on to new things very quickly, or not at all – with great frustration. So far my little fiber friends are pretty rudimentary looking, but i think there is some serious potential! I’m so confident, that i am preparing to announce a new weekly or bi-weekly feature here at Pocket Pause….. with luck, the announcement will coincide with an extra special giveaway – so stay posted!

As i develop this skill, i’ll be posting tons of felty inspiration to my Pinterest board (screen shot above), and all the best resources i find to my blogroll or resources page. I used some birthday cash to place a big order for new needles, felting mats and more from Living Felt – which ironically enough is based out of Dripping Springs, TX (about 30 minutes west of where i used to live – can i still claim it as a local resource? No? Oh well, i still think they’re great). Check out their Facebook page and blog (in my blogroll) for tons of awesome tutorials and felting supplies. I’ve already improved just by looking through some of their tutorials, and am sure that I’ll have a ton of adora-felties to share with you next Fiber Friday!

For now: welcome “Felted Pocket #1” to the family! I felted this Pocket during a few sunny hours outside, without any instruction or real research on how one is “supposed” to needle felt… so she’s pretty darned rugged. I think a before and after is called for – this Pocket side by side with my second Pocket attempt?

PS – Don’t forget to enter our FIRST giveaway! That soap isn’t going to lather itself!

Would you like to have a little mini Pocket to call YOUR own? I think she’d love to perch on your computer monitor or car dashboard… (I sense some foreshadowing).