My First Felted Beadies:)

In the month of July, I found a few pieces of mohair fiber. As I don't have a spinning wheel and can't do any thing else with the fiber, I thought I'd try my hand at felting. Knowing the basic principles of felt-making, I thought it would be quick and easy. I found d.i.y. instructions, on how to make felted beads, on the Net and I was all set. So I took my pieces of mohair, a bowl of hot steaming water and a bar of soap out onto the veranda and started with the steps I had printed out.

Step1: Take your piece of fiber with wet, soapy hands and roll between hands to form a snake. Do not let the fiber foam-up. So that didn't work! I then dipped the fiber in the hot water, burning my fingers and rolled the soapy fiber between my hands.
Step2: Cut the snake into even pieces and rub the edges in the palm of your hand, in circular movements. When I tried that part, the fibers came loose and went all over the place! So, I tried layering the cut pieces with wet-webbed pieces of fiber and rolled it into balls in the palm of my hand. I stood out on that veranda 'till the sun went down, rolling, rolling and rolling... When I finished, my hands were so sore. I looked at the instructions again and realized that I had to use Merino wool and not silky mohair.

The next morning I was quite chuffed with my handful of felted-mohair beads, although at the back of my mind I was thinking "Is this it?! Is this what I spent my whole Sunday afternoon on?"

After having left the beads out in the sun to dry, I took some string and a needle and started to thread the felted beads and buttons until I used up all the felted beads. I tied the end and I now have a beautiful felted necklace:p