Needle felting: make your first creature (and stop stabbing your fingers)

Needle felting is sculpting with wool and a barbed needle. Every stab tangles the fibres a little more. It's slow, meditative, and surprisingly addictive.

Kit

• Core wool (cheap, undyed) for the bulk.
• Coloured merino or corriedale tops for the outside.
• Felting needles: a 38 star for general work, a 40 triangle for fine detail.
• A thick foam block or a brush mat.
• Leather finger guards. Buy them. Use them.

The method

1. Tear off a wad of core wool, roll it tightly into an egg, and stab all over, rotating constantly. Shallow stabs, straight in and out; bent needles snap.
2. Keep going until it's firm, like a stress ball. Under-felted bodies sag and pull apart later.
3. Wrap a thin layer of coloured wool around, felt it down. Add more where needed.
4. Make ears, legs and tails separately, leaving loose fibre at one end to attach.
5. Attach parts by felting the loose fibres into the body, then refine the join.

Details

• Eyes: black glass beads on a doll needle, or tiny balls of black wool.
• Nose and mouth: a wisp of dark wool, or embroidery thread.
• Blush: a few fibres of pink, barely felted.

Common problems

• Fuzzy surface: stab shallower and more often, or lightly shave with small scissors.
• Lumpy: add wool to the low spots rather than felting the high ones down.
• Broken needles: you're bending them. Straight in, straight out.

Start with a simple mushroom or a round bird before attempting a fox. Then post the fox anyway.

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