Playing With My New Felting Machine

Once I direct my husband to investigate something I think I want/need, he's like a blood hound. So for my birthday indulgence I purchased this 12 needle felting machine on Amazon.

My desk is cleared for now of other commitments and I can start seriously thinking about my entry for the IPM in August/September.

It doesn't take much to break these slender needles as I found out with the hand felting needle kits so I wanted to start out slowly and cautiously. I had some unused felt in a lost drawer so I used that as my backing for my first trials.

All of these are wool except for the black and white striped yarn at the bottom. The roving was a no-brainer and I was pleased to see I could maintain sharp edges with it.

There was some draw up happening. I think it was aggravated by the felt sheet which has no structure at all.  Next I tried simply feeding the rovings thru the needles. That resulted in a mat, similar to a dog's underbelly.

Not ideal, but it might have its uses somewhere. But the material was difficult to maneuver and was being jammed down into the machine. I can't see me doing much of that.

So I pulled out my netting and folded it around some roving blends. Lots of control and nice blending. Front or back showed minimal difference at this point.
 

And then there's Angelina "fabric".
A bit of temporary netting on top and the roving fused to the Angelina.

Sometimes it's a bit too shiny but if you OVER heat it, a dull fibre remains.

And if you felt to that..

Lots to think about here!