Needle felting is a type of craft where you take loose wool (often referred to as wool roving) and repeatedly poke it with a barbed needle until it forms a solid, three-dimensional shape. The barbs on the needle cause the fibers to interlock with one another, causing the wool roving to hold its shape once you’re done. You can create anything with needle felting, from people to animals to imaginary creatures that exist only in your mind. Needle felting is, unfortunately, not as popular as other types of crafts like knitting or embroidery, but it’s just as fun in my opinion. Here are my reasons why you should give it a try!
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1. It’s Relatively Cheap
Compared to other similar crafts, needle felting supplies aren’t nearly as expensive. All you need to start needle felting are a needle (or multiple needles, since you can easily break them when you’re still in the learning phase), wool roving, and some type of sponge or foam block to serve as your “working platform.” The foam/sponge block is necessary because the needle is very delicate and can break if it hits a hard surface like a table top. Placing your work on top of the foam block will protect your needle. You can get a whole kit of required materials (plus a few extra materials that’ll make felting easier) for only $9.99 off of Amazon or your preferred craft store. Wool roving is also relatively inexpensive, and you can usually get a bunch of different colors of wool roving for anywhere from $10 to $15 that’ll last you for many, many projects. Compared to the supplies you need to start knitting or crocheting, the price isn’t nearly as steep.
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2. It’s Easier Than Other Crafts
Of course, “ease” is subjective, but if you find all the different steps in knitting or crocheting difficult, you’ll be happy to know that needle felting isn’t nearly as complicated. Essentially, if you can poke a clump of wool with a needle over and over again, you can needle felt. No memorization of loops or stitches required! You don’t even have to follow patterns unless you want to! The only difficult part about needle felting is that it is very time-consuming. A small, simple needle felting project can take up to two hours and more intricate pieces can take days or even weeks. However, you can speed up the process by using a felting pen, which holds three needles, instead of a single needle. It is also a very forgiving medium, meaning that it’s very difficult to mess up. It takes many, many pokes with the needle to make any indents or shaping of the wool permanent, so it’s very easy to notice mistakes before they’re permanent. And if you don’t like how it looks, you can very easily “massage” your piece with your hand to remove any indentations or simply add more wool to cover mistakes.
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3. It’s Calming
Repetitive tasks are often calming, so if you’re looking for ways to unwind, needle felting can help you out. Needle felting requires you to slow down and focus at the task at hand, which can also be calming.
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4. You Can Create Almost Anything
The sky’s the limit with needle felting. Though it is classified under the “fiber arts,” I see it as being closer to sculpting with clay. If you can imagine it, you can create it. Some people create miniature figures of people or animals, other people make huge models, and some people make abstract art. You have complete artistic freedom.
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Something to Keep In Mind
While needle felting can be a lot of fun, it is important to keep in mind that it requires the use of a very, very sharp needle. Before you start needle felting, it is important to research safety tips so you don’t end up poking yourself with the needle. Please don’t let this scare you away, however, since once you get the hang of needle felting, poking yourself becomes very unlikely.
Hopefully this little introduction into the world of needle felting will encourage you to give it a try. Needle felting is what initially introduced me to art and has since become a passion of mine. If you love creating art, you just might love needle felting if you give it a try!
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