I made a couple of videos to show how I go about wet felting wool balls a while back (with needle felted embellishments too). I finally got around to featuring the sources, videos, and such on my blog. It took me a number of years and many many balls to fine-tune my approach, so I hope that it saves somebody else time and inspires folks in the process. I find that the wool balls are fantastic for gentle play with babies/young children and for indoor play without risk of breaking things. They're also 100% natural and much-loved in Waldorf and other nature-loving craft circles. Anyway, here's a link to the post:

http://crunchyparent.com/?p=272

I'm pretty sure you're talking about "Cooks Country" published by the people who do "Cook's Illustrated" (and America's Test Kitchen).

http://www.cookscountry.com/

Thank you...that one is destined (in part) for my friend who got her MBA from U. Michigan (their colors are gold & blue). When I was pregnant with my first daughter, she came for a visit and helped paint the nursery. She insisted on painting "M"s on the wall as a subliminal U Mich message. She just had her first baby over the weekend, so the yellow/blue skein will go towards a hat for her new little boy.

This came about from an old old thread I saw here eons ago. It all just finally clicked the other day.

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=230016.msg2501991#msg2501991

In a fit of creative madness, I deconstructed this $3.99 Goodwill wool sweater



and broke out the Wilton dyes to create these four prrrrty skeins of yummy wooliness.



Step by step details and more photos on my blog (which I can't seem to hyperlink to) http://crunchyparent.com/?p=218 . I can't wait to knit these up (colors more vibrant IRL and so lovely).

Sorry, I'm just now seeing this invitation. I would be delighted to give it a go. Can you give me more details as to how to make a user-friendly felt-along? I've filmed another video tutorial for making felted wool balls (combined wet felting and needle felting). Would something like that be ok or does it need to be a photo tutorial only? Are felted balls too basic? If you could point me in the right direction, I could get working on this (tee hee hee)

Thanks all. It seemed to be a hit. At first I thought that the moms all liked it more than the kids, but DD assured me that the children thought that it was cool too.

So, I'm on a bit of a crusade to make natural, simple crafting more accessible to people. To that end, I've been trying to put a lot of crafting resource and tutorial posts on my blog. I took an additional leap tonight and put a free "how to" video tutorial of me wet felting wool soap on YouTube. I also put it as a post on my blog with notes and tips, and resource links here http://crunchyparent.com/?p=201.

I intend to do other video tutorials in the near future for felted wool crafts and other things (if I can generate ideas for quick and fun crafts). I'd love to get your feedback or suggestions for other tutorials, and I just wanted to make it known that the video is out there as a free resource (the only other felt soap tutorial on YouTube was in Japanese). 

 

DD was invited to a birthday party for a little girl from her Waldorf preschool. We didn't get much advance notice with the invite so I couldn't order anything online and TRU doesn't really have much to offer in the natural playthings genre, so it was time to break out some wool and my needles and create a little play mat complete with two cute gnomes. The mat is about 7"x12" and the gnomes are each about 2" tall including their hats. The log, gnomes, and boat can all be moved about. The boat is the only thing that is not wool (it's a nut shell with a muslin sail). I hope that she likes it.




ETA: I started it on Wed. and finished it on Thur. The party is tomorrow.

Hands down the best resource for wool "core" batt is West Earl Woolen Mill in PA. They price out at about $5-$6 per pound plus shipping. No website. Call them at 717-859-2241