A handful of firms still block their own felt. Everyone else buys bodies from the same few mills. What the names mean, what to expect at each price, and where to buy in Australia or on Amazon.
4 min read
A hat band changes the hat more than anything else you can buy for it. The rest of the list is care equipment — and two items on it save a hat that would otherwise be ruined.
3 min read
Felt has no grain and no weave, which makes it ideal for machine cutting and awful for a blade that expects resistance. Which machine cuts which thickness, and the settings that actually work.
4 min read
Two different things go by this name — a felt tote in the Birkin silhouette, and the felt organiser that sits inside a real one. Both come down to how stiff the felt is.
4 min read Advanced
Fibre enters at the hopper and leaves as a web at the doffer. Between them sit the licker-in, the cylinder, the workers and strippers and the fancy — each doing one job to the fibre as it passes.
4 min read
A felt slipper is only as good as the wool it is made of and the sole it is joined to. How to tell boiled wool from needled felt, which soles last, which footbeds actually hold an arch, and why Nordic slippers feel so different.
6 min read
The mat is not padding. Its ridges grip the wool through the plastic and shear it slightly with every roll, and that shear is what turns a fragile web into fabric.
3 min read Beginner
Corriedale for almost everything, cheap carded wool for the inside, merino only where it shows. Which roving suits needle felting, what it costs, and how to work out how much a project actually needs.
7 min read Beginner
Roving is not only for felting. Weaving, spinning, doll hair, punch needle and wreaths all take loose wool, and several of them need no equipment at all.
7 min read Beginner
Pure wool felt, wool blend and acrylic craft felt look almost identical on a shelf and behave nothing alike. What the labels mean and what each is good for.
3 min read Beginner
Quilters and felters both buy wool batting and want opposite things from it. What the bonding and scrim on quilt wadding do, and why it will not felt.
3 min read Intermediate
Carded batts felt faster than combed tops and cost less per gram. What batting is, which kind to buy, and why quilters and felters want different things from it.
4 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.
Complete makes with photos at every stage — animals, flowers, ornaments and home decorations, sorted by how much experience they need.
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.
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.
