There are many things you can do with wool besides knitting or weaving. Two activities presented here are felted hats and booties, and making tassels that can be used as book marks.

Felting is easy to do and it only requires wool, soap and water.

The first step in making a felt hat is drawing a pattern on paper. The photo of the white bell-shaped hat shown below is an example to follow. Since you must allow for shrinkage, make your pattern a bit larger than what you see here, at least `6-18 inches across the base. Cut a piece of plastic to match the shape of your pattern. You will work with this plastic template during the felting process.

Working on a textured surface such as a felting board, scrub board or tile, make layers of wool as shown: crosswise and length wise. Pile the wool up about three or four inches high.

Sprinkle cool water and droplets of liquid soap on the wool and press with your hands until the wool begins to stick together. Alternate hot and cold water--this will shock the wool and cause it to matt.

Place the plastic pattern on the wool and curl some of the fibers around the edges of your plastic template. Then, continue to pile more wool in the crisscross layers on top of the plastic template.

Sprinkle more water and soap on the wool and press with your hands until the wool begins to stick together. Alternate hot and cold water as you did above.

As the felt begins to form one piece of cloth you may work it across the ripples of the scrub board with more vigor. Continue rinsing with hot and cold water until the hat shrinks to the size you want it.

When your piece is solid, cut a slit along the base or the flat side of your bell-shaped, felted template. Remove the plastic template from inside and open up your hat.

Before your hat is fully dry, put it on your head and shape it accordingly. If at this stage you need to stretch it some, go ahead. Put two fists inside and spin the hat as you apply gentle pressure outward. If you notice that your hat is still soapy, rinse it out carefully with lukewarm water. Do not continue rinsing with hot and cold water as it might shrink the hat further.

To make the booties shown above, sketch an oversized boot (much like a wide Christmas stocking though shorter and with a flat sole) and follow the same instructions. Make a purse in this same manner. For its strap, roll a felt snake.

Other projects you might try with felt are simply felting a large piece of cloth, cutting it up into squares, rectangles or circles and embroidering designs or pictures on them. Cut some into the shape of book markers or sew a few large pieces together to make a quilt.

Book Marker Tassels

This photograph shows the tassels on my carpet. Tassels were often woven on Middle Eastern Carpets to ward off evil spirits. You can make tassels as book marks or maybe girls would like to wear them in their hair.

Tie yarn to the rung of a chair or tape strands to the top of a piece of cardboard. Braid the threads--perhaps use nine strands or any multiples of three--to make your book mark as thick as you would like. After you've braided three or more inches of the yarn, take a new strand of thread about six inches in length and wrap it around the base of your braid until you run out of thread. Tuck the end of it beneath the spiral wraps you have just made to secure it. If you've taped your threads onto cardboard, repeat this step on both ends of your bookmarker. Before you cut the unbraided threads which may be dangling below your spiral wrap, you may wish to add beads then tie a knot beneath the beads to secure them.

Felt Making Resources
A terrific book on felting which includes instructions for projects is: New Directions for Felt: An Ancient Craft, by Gunilla Paetau Sjoberg. Interweave Press, Loveland, CO, 1996.

To purchase wool or other felting supplies contact Kate Painter at Paradise Fibers. Her web site is
www.paradisefibers.com. Kate has starter packs for beginning felt projects that include 15 colors of yarn.

Afghans for Afghanistan

Here is a blanket that I made with my daughter and friends to send to refugees in Afghanistan. We each knitted individual squares and sewed them together. Many knitters helped with this project– from Washington, Utah, California, and visitors from Iran. Threads for this blanket traveled with one woman to Texas, Illinois, New York, Canada, China, Germany and Japan!