Topic
Felt is the best backing for bead embroidery there is — stable, unfraying and thick enough to bury a knot. The three stitches that hold beads, and how to finish the back.
4 min read Intermediate
Combining the two methods is standard practice, not a compromise. What wet felting does to a needled piece, in which order to work, and when it ruins things.
3 min read Intermediate
Onion skins give strong golds, ambers and rusts from something you throw away, and unusually among natural dyes they work without a mordant.
4 min read Intermediate
Dyeing a finished wool garment is the same chemistry as dyeing fibre, with one extra hazard — everything that makes the dye bond also makes wool felt.
4 min read Intermediate
Alpaca has fewer scales than sheep wool, so it felts more slowly and drapes far better. Where that trade-off helps, and where you should blend it with wool instead.
4 min read Intermediate
A simple felted bag pattern with the arithmetic explained, so you can size it to any yarn instead of hoping somebody else's gauge matches yours.
4 min read Intermediate
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
