Wool Sauna Hat
A felt hat in a hot room sounds backwards until you understand what it is doing. Why wool is the only sensible fibre for it, how to choose one, and how to felt your own.
5 min read Intermediate
Complete makes with photos at every stage — animals, flowers, ornaments and home decorations, sorted by how much experience they need.
A felt hat in a hot room sounds backwards until you understand what it is doing. Why wool is the only sensible fibre for it, how to choose one, and how to felt your own.
5 min read Intermediate
Three ways to build a flower from felt cloth — rolled, stacked and petal by petal — which suits which bloom, and the cutting that decides whether it looks made or bought.
6 min read Beginner
A handmade slipper wears out in one place and it is always the same place. Leather, suede, rubber, grip fabric and latex compared on cost and lifespan, then the cutting, the stitching and the ease problem that makes knitted soles pucker.
10 min read Intermediate
A 12 cm Santa needs a 5 cm beard. Scarlet wool that will not creep into the white, curls laid in at the root only, and the least face you can get away with.
9 min read Intermediate
A slipper for a 25 cm foot leaves the needles 37 cm long. Choosing yarn that will actually felt, swatching for your own shrinkage figure, and judging a free pattern before you cast on.
10 min read Intermediate
A felt plushie is cut and sewn, not needle felted. Which felt to buy, why the pattern carries no seam allowance, and the edge stitches that hold a stuffed toy together.
12 min read Beginner
Crochet loses 20 to 30% in the wash where knitting loses 30 to 40%. Every measurement, hook size and cycle length on a crochet slipper follows from that one difference.
10 min read Intermediate
One felted jumper makes two or three pairs. The template, where to place it to use the cuffs, and the fleece lining that turns them from craft into kit.
4 min read Beginner
Nothing about a fish body says fish. The fins and tail do all the work, and they only work if the body underneath is a flattened teardrop rather than a sausage.
6 min read Beginner
A hanging animal is seen from every side and has to balance on one cord. What that means for the loop position, the weight, and how much detail is worth felting.
11 min read Intermediate
One felted jumper is about half a square metre of thick, cut-friendly wool. Fifteen things to make from it, ordered by how much fabric each one needs.
4 min read Beginner
Felt does not fray, so a cat pattern is four shapes and no hemming. How to draw your own template, and what changes when the cat is going to be chewed.
6 min read Beginner
Sculpt wool into animals, figures and decorations with barbed needles. Start with the basics, then work up to armatures, faces and fine detail.
Warm water, soap and friction turn loose fibre into solid fabric. Learn layouts, shrinkage and resists for scarves, soaps, vessels and flat felt.
Felt merino through open-weave fabric to create light, drapey textiles. Fabric choice, fibre weight and migration, explained clearly.
Printable templates, measurements and shaping guides you can follow exactly, or adapt once you know what the shapes are doing.
The core techniques, one skill at a time — each written as a sequence you can follow at the table with wool in your hands.
Which needles, wool and mats are actually worth buying — what the gauges mean, what to skip, and what a starter kit really needs.
Fixes for the things that go wrong: fuzzy surfaces, broken needles, wool that will not felt, and shapes that refuse to hold.
The knitting side of working with wool — leaf patterns, casting on, needle sizes and knitting faster — including the pieces that go on to be felted.
Why leaves fall when they do, what a cobweb actually is, and the seasonal makes that follow from both.
What to do with the pumpkin once it is carved — cooking from fresh, including the parts most people throw away.