Felting Dreams

I spent a good part of this past weekend at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival at the Rhinebeck Fairgrounds. 

One thing I was interested in looking at was rovings, particularly dyed rovings.  I had not been to the Sheep and Wool Festival for many years and it has expanded considerably in my absence.  One thing that really impressed me was the amazing variety and selection of fibers for spinners.  Some of these were amazingly beautiful and I loved the colors of some of the combinations of silk and wool and also some of the tencel blends.  If I knew how to spin this would be an amazing temptation, and as it was I was sorely tempted.

I was looking however for wool rovings or fiber to use for felting and fabric embellishment.  I am totally inexperienced at felting but I have been feeling an itch to try some and I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to get some fibers to play with and see if I liked the process. It was quicky apparent that the problem would not be in finding materials, but in limiting myself.  Luckily, since I am not sure about felting silk or tencel fibers I quickly eliminated them from the search.  Still there were more than enough options to choose: Here is some of what I came home with:

Both photos were taken in the late afternoon sun but the colors seem pretty close.

The show was really inspirational.  There were several felters present and some of them did amazing work: the traditional thick felt as well as some very sheer, modern delicate looking things crafted into exquisite garments.  There were also beautiful quilted pots and one woman who made wonderful purses and satchels with leather trim and beautiful hardware.  If my budget were not constrained by looming construction costs I would have been far more tempted into purchasing.  As it was the fair was a wonderful source of inspiration.

I was also fascinated by the work of some of the weavers.  I have thought that I would love to take up weaving, but I never was tempted to work on a small loom.  This means that weaving will definitely remain in the realm of dreams for me.  I know I don’t have the time – I barely have time to sew and knit.  I can’t help dreaming of fiber arts though.  If I could spend all my time on those things alone…..hmm…it would never happen.  Get me started in the yard and I dream of spending all my time gardening.  Put me in the kitchen and I dream of spending all my time cooking.  I will never be able to indulge all the interests I dream of indulging.

But maybe I will get a little felting done.