Felt Bunting

This summer I was approached by a local felting group who wanted me to run a drum carding workshop for them.
I've taught drum carding workshops so many times now that I can pretty much do them standing on my head, but they'd always been for spinning groups, so taught with a view to making batts that are great for spinning. 
I'm a dabbler in felting, rather than an expert. I know just enough to realise how little I actually know! So out came the drum carder, and it was time to put some ideas in to practise. 
I knew I wanted to get them experimenting with texture, and colours, and that we were definitely going to be using more wools than just merino. 
​The bunting above is the result of all my sampling, and I learned loads from doing it...
When I card to spin I like my fibres to be well blending, but with felting doing 1 less pass on the drum carder gives a better effect. I also found I needed far more of the textural fibre than I would include for spinning blends.
​I also really love the feel of the felt made with some added fleece, it made the piece feel much more bouncey. Even the ones where I included some Shetland or BFL tops in with the merino really helped the feel of the finished piece.

I think I might stick to my spinning though... one thing a day of making samples brings home is just how energetic felt making is!