The girls and I have watched several felting demonstrations over the past couple of years (most recently at the Alpaca farm) but we'd never actually tried to do it ourselves until this past weekend.

It wasn't nearly as hard to do as I thought it would be (of course we chose the easiest project possible) but it was more time-consuming than I realized and a little messy.

The kids loved it.

We started off with a pile of loose felted wool and a warm bucket of soapy water (a few drops of dish detergent was all the soap we used).

It was important not to squeeze the wool but just work it around in our hands so that it became saturated while forming a ball shape. If we squeezed too hard we made dents and cracks, which we wanted to avoid.

The class was designed for kids but when we were told that the adults could do it too, Fino and I jumped right in.

L. used several different colors of wool for her ball and spent about 40 minutes working the shape until it was solid.

The test to know if we were done felting was to try and bounce our ball on the floor. If it bounced, it was firm enough to stop working.

Fino enjoyed this particular step and bounced the ball not only on the floor but also off the wall. A couple of the kids followed suit and we had to put a stop to that. Yes, fathers are a lot more fun sometimes.

It not only takes a while to form the ball, it takes another couple of days for it to dry completely. Some of the kids used multiple colors because they planned to cut the ball in half and see the design formed inside the ball. (We have yet to find a good, sharp knife to make our cuts but I'll post a photo when we do.)

If you're interested in felting -- it really is a lot of fun -- here are a few resources to get you started:

Portland Fiber Gallery for classes

Halcyon Yarn in Bath for supplies

County fairs and open farm day are great times to see a felting demonstration and talk to artists about the craft

If you know of any other resources or classes about felting, post a comment below!