Felt Frenzy: 26 Projects for All Forms of Felting

This is not your ordinary felting book! Felt Frenzy explores all the major techniques of felt making, from knit-and-shrink to wet felting, needlefelting, and "recycled felting" - turning salvaged wool sweaters into useful felt pieces - plus ways to combine techniques for creative and unique results.

Designed with the absolute beginner in mind, Felt Frenzy is packed with 26 projects and photographs of more than 50 before-and-after felted yarn combinations so readers can easily customize patterns with substitutions of their choice. You'll find instructions for the ever-popular felted bag, but it doesn't stop there - learn to make felted flowers, hats, jackets, scarves, wool sneakers, even a nuno felted skirt. As an added bonus, you'll find "design ideas" scattered throughout the book to give your projects an extra creative boost; these suggestions help integrate felt into other fiber arts, from embroidery to shibori.

Learn all about fiber types, tools for getting started, and the four major techniques needed to create the projects in the book. Armed with plenty of information and the authors' can-do spirit, any crafter can add felting to her repertoire with Felt Frenzy!

Introduction to Felting: Felting, at its simplest, is an art and a science, the process of deliberately tangling and shrinking wool or other animal fibers. It's as simple as that, but the possibilities of this very simple process are almost limitless.

• Trapezoid Bag- One of the reasons we love felt is the variety of methods and materials you can use to embellish it, and this bag is the perfect blank canvas for all your experiments.
• Cloche Hat- You don't need much experience to make this bell-shaped cloche, but sizing and shaping this one-size-fits-all hat is an exercise to practice your blocking skills.
• Bag of Many Pockets- The two different-colored sections of this bag are assembled to create five separate pockets: one big enough to hold a small knitting project, another for your wallet, and three small exterior pockets perfect for your cell phone, sunglasses, or knitting notions.
• Mod Knitting Bag- This short, wide project bag will easily hold most of your knitting projects, even the ones on long single-pointed needles. The color pattern is inspired by a vintage mod wallpaper print.
• Messenger Bag- This mid-sized messenger bag is just the right size to hold some books and a small blanket for a trip to the park.
• Urchin Bag- When you're entranced with knits that shape themselves, a short-row heel is one of the coolest things ever. This bag is made up of five heel shapes stuck together to make a puffy star.
• Urchin Hat- When she saw the first urchin bags, Shannon immediately asked Heather, "Can you make this a hat?!" Of course we can! The hat is obviously bigger than the original bag, and the short rows on the bottom half aren't as deep.
• Short-row Slippers- If you've never knitted socks, this is a great project to learn the techniques the slippers are worked at a big gauge, and the felting will hide any mistakes you might make.
• Newsie- Knitted with a classic tweed yarn, but in a hot shade of orange, a newsboy cap can be as classic or as funky as your own personal style.
• Karaoke Wrap- We chose a yarn that is 50% wool and 50% soy silk because it felts into a thin fabric that drapes beautifully and is super-soft.
• Design Ideas- Incorporating beads into felt, Superwash textures, Using grommets and other types of metal

• Balls and Beads- Making felt balls from roving or yarn scraps is an easy introduction to wet felting and a great project to do with kids.
• Sheepy Scrubbing Soap- A good bar of soap in its own wooly shell will help keep you extra clean; this is another good project for kids (to wash their grimy hands and make something useful at the same time).
• Snuggle Scarf- This is an extremely easy project that makes the softest, warmest scarf you will ever own. It's also a great chance to experiment with blending fibers or colors.
• Nuno Felt Wrap- Nuno (or laminated) felt is a technique developed by artist Polly Stirling. It consists of wool fiber felted into a lightweight base fabric. The resulting fabric is thin, drapery, and can be used for a variety of applications.
• Nuno Felt Skirt- Take advantage of the lighter weight and drape of Nuno felt to create wearable art and unique clothing.
• Design Ideas- Layering, Overdyeing Felt, Surround with Felt

• Monogrammed Bag- A great way to start experimenting with felting needles is to apply a monogram or a simple pattern onto another felted surface, in this case the purple Trapezoid Bag from chapter one.
• Bermuda Bag- You're not limited to initials when you needle felt with yarn making plaid with needlefelting techniques is a snap. With this pattern, we invoke a preppy staple: the Bermuda bag.
• Daisy and Lily Flowers- Making felt flowers can quickly become addicting! Add them to hats, bags, or anywhere you need a little extra decoration.
• Flapper Hat- This hat is extremely warm and soft and has sort of the same simple beauty as a fondant-covered cake.
• Maki Pincushion- By rolling up wool of many colors into a tube, you can make a simple millefiore effect, like the can work traditionally done in colored glass or, more recently, polymer clay. We used this concept to make a simple sushi roll pincushion.
• Wool Shoes- These needlefelted beauties were the first thing we thought of when we heard Converse was making a wool version of its classic shoe.
• Design Ideas- Felting for the allergic, vegans, and other non-wool people, Shear Brilliance, Iron-on embroidery patterns, Needlefelting shapes

• Embroidered Felted Needle Case- Items you use all the time should be beautiful as well as functional. A handmade needle case with personalized embroidery is the perfect combination of those qualities.
• Camera Case- This camera case will keep your digital friend padded and safe when it's tucked in your bag or backpack
• Espresso Cozy- Tea cozies are practical and fanciful, but frankly they're the kind of project that non-crafters have been known to mock. Teach the doubters a lesson with this modern cozy that matches your highly caffeinated lifestyle.
• Patchwork Felted Jacket- Like a quilt, there are a number of different ways to make a unique patchwork jacket or vest with uniform square pieces, assemble crazy-quilt style, or following the construction of the original felted sweater.
• Design Ideas- Shibori techniques, Quilting felted fabrics

Shannon Okey is an avid knitter, spinner, and fiber artist. She has appeared on the DIY Network’s Uncommon Threads and Knitty Gritty, and HGTV’s Crafters Coast to Coast. Her books include Knitgrrl and Knitgrrl 2 andSpin to Knit (Interweave Press, 2006).

Heather Brack is an editor and writer who enjoys spinning, knitting, and other fiber arts. She is a contributor to the books Knitgrrl, Knitting for Dogs, and Small Dogs, Big Hearts.