Protecting wool from wool moths

This advice comes from Ruth Walker (www.feltmaker.com)

Make sure your wool is clean before you store it.  After you clean it, put it in a brown paper bag that is double folded and stapled at the top.  Wool moths will chew through plastic bags to get to the wool but they cannot chew through the paper.  

Great.  

Attach a small amount of the wool to the outside of the bag so you know what's in there and don't have to open it to look.

This means that I have a weekend long project ahead of me.  In fact it may take several weekends to accomplish this.  Since I use many colors and types of wool in each project, I'll save out one small basket and watch it carefully for signs of moths.

I have found some sites that tell what to do to get rid of the moths once they find your wool.  Here are some of those suggestions:

1.  Moth larvae do not like light.  Take wool sweaters out of closets and drawers every couple of weeks (life cycle of moth is 21 days) and shake them out or hang them out in the sun.  This might work for our craft wool, too.  If the sun decides to stay out for awhile, I'll try putting my wool in a mesh bag and hanging it on my clothesline.  I'll shake it up a bit for good measure, too.

2.  Wash in hot water (above 120 degrees F).  This is supposed to kill the moth eggs and larvae

3.  Freezing is also supposed to kill the moths.

4.  There are various chemical concoctions available but I cannot speak to how safe they are.  I haven't found anything yet that I would trust to be non-toxic.  

If anyone else has other suggestions, please post them here!  It is so discouraging to open a bin of wool and find that it's being eaten away.  

The Anatomy of a Penguin - how to make a needle felt penguin

For those of you who have done needle felted figures, the photos may be enough for you to figure out how I made these little penguins.  It's not an exact process, that's for sure! 

Needle felted bunny

This little bunny is fun to make.  If you haven't done any needle felting before, this would make a nice first project.  To get started, you will need:

Felting needles - have more than one on hand in case one breaks

Soft sponge as a base for your felting

Wool fleece in grey, brown, or white, with a tiny bit of black and white wool for details

Pipe cleaner

*****

Directions:

Bend your pipe cleaner like this:                        

Begin to wrap the wool tightly around the ear as shown:  

                           

Wrap the wool tightly around the pipe cleaner until you cover the top curve of the ear.  Then bend the pipe cleaner down and continue to wrap both sides together.  Do this with both ears.  It will look like this:

Now you can begin to use the felting needle to secure the wool.  Continue wrapping the wool around the body, wrapping around the bottom curve as you did for the top of the ears.  Use thin bits of wool and wrap tightly.  Secure each layer with the felting needle. The more felting you do with the needle, the tighter and sturdier the rabbit will be.  Wrap both the body and the ears, felting each layer, until it is the size you want.

Pay attention to felting in between the ears and felting the bottom so the bunny can stand up.

At this point, your bunny may look more like an insect.  This is normal.  If you have a six year old son, you might decide to stop here and let it be a bug.  Otherwise, continue...

After your bunny is fat enough for you, begin shaping the head, neck and belly with the felting needle.  Remember, the more you felt in one place with the needle, the more shaping you will get, such as shown around the neck above.

Roll up four small tube shapes out of the wool for feet.  It is nice to have just a little extra wool at the end to hold onto.  This prevents (or helps to prevent) sticking yourself with the needle.  You don't want to do that.  The needles are sharp and also fragile.  It also doesn't really help the design any to have blood on it.  Needlefelt each foot before attaching them to the body of the bunny. 

Here is our bunny with shaping done and the feet in place.  Secure the feet well with the felting needle, adding some thin bits of wool around where they are attached.  This helps so you don't see the connection as much and it will be more secure.

I like adding the upper part of the back legs to the rabbit.  This is optional, but I like it better.  Roll a small bit of wool into a flat circle.  Attach in proper place by back feet as shown:

Attach a bit of a white tail...

Add black nose and eyes and a little white on the tummy.  If you are ambitious and are not giving this to a toddler, you can use tiny black beads for eyes.  You may also stitch  whiskers on it.  I haven't done that yet, but I plan to on my next bunny!

Sleepy Bat

I used a worsted weight tweed yarn for the bodies of the bats and I washed and felted an old black wool sweater for the wings.  You will need this or some black felt.   Size 5 knitting needles.  Also, buttons for eyes and a hook and eye fastener.

Body:  Cast on 20 stitches.  Work in Stockinette stitch for 2 1/2 inches.  Then begin decrease rows:

Row 1:  Knit 1, knit 2 together.  Repeat till the end of the row. 

Row 2:  Purl

Row 3:  Knit 2 together. Repeat till the end of the row

Row 4:  Purl

Row 5:  Knit 2 together.  Repeat till the end of the row.

Row 6:  Purl

You should only have about 6 or 7 stiches left.  Cut the yarn, leaving a 10 inch tail.  Thread through a yarn needle and pull through all the stitches.  pull tight and secure.  You can, at this point, go ahead and sew the back seam.  Do not sew the bottom.

Ears (make two)

Cast on 6 stitches.

Rows 1-4:  Stockinette Stich

Row 5:  Knit two together, knit two, knit two together

Row 6:  Purl

Row 7:  Knit two together, Knit two together

Row 8:  Purl

Row 9:  Knitting, increase one in the first and last stitches

Row 10:  Purl

Row 11:  knitting, increase one in the first and last stitches

Row 12:  Purl

Row 13 - 16:  Stockinette Stitch

Bind off

Feet (make two)

Cast on 5 stitches

Work in Stockinette stitch for 2 inches.

Bind off.

***

A bunch of bats? A bevy of bats?

Finishing:

Lightly stuff the body of the bat and sew across the bottom.  Put the two sides of the ear together and sew.  Sew ears to body (see photo).  Sew the feet to the bottom of the bat as loops so it can hang from a branch.  Cut wings out of black felt.  You might want to try cutting some out of paper first so you can get the size and shape that you want.  Sew on button eyes.  Attach a hook and eye fastener to the wings so that your bat can hang upside down and sleep!

Knitted Owl

I used worsted weight yarn with a bit of texture to it. I’m not sure what kind it is but it was a small ball of leftover yarn from another project. I tend to knit like I cook. I don’t often follow patterns and this is a good example. I was trying to knit a bat and ended up with an owl. As they say in school, if you make a mistake, turn it into something beautiful. Like an owl.

 

#3 or #4 needles

Body:

Cast on 14 stitches. Knit in Stockinette Stitch until the rectangle measures approximately 7 – 8 inches. Fold it over lengthwise and see if it looks proportionately like a little owl should. Don’t use a ruler unless you just can’t resist. Bind off.

Wings: (make two)

Cast on 6 stitches. Work in Garter stitch.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Knit 1, increase 1 in next stitch, knit till the end

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Knit 1, increase 1 in next stitch, knit till the end

Rows 5 – 7: Knit

Row 8: Knit 1, knit 2 together, knit till end

Row 9: Knit

Repeat these two rows until there is only one stitch left. Cut yarn, leaving a 3” tail, pull yarn through last stitch.

Feet: (make two)

With contrasting color, cast on 5 stitches. Work in stockinette stitch for approximately 10 rows. End with a purl row.

(As with the measurement for the body, use your own judgment here. Some yarns knit up larger than others. Those owls might need longer feet.)

Picot row: Knit 1, yarn over, knit two together, yarn over, knit two together

Next row: Purl, making sure you purl the yarn over stitches, too. You still have 5 stitches on the needle.

Continue with stockinette stitch until you can fold it over lengthwise (see the lovely TOES that the picot stitch makes?) and it is meets the other edge. Bind off.

Beak:

Cast on 4 stitches. Work in Stockinette stitch for 4 rows.

Next row: Knit 2 together, knit 2 together.

Next row: Purl

Cut yarn, leaving a 3” tail, pull yarn through the two remaining stitches.

Fold body lengthwise in half and sew together, stuffing with wool. Pull out the top corners just a bit with your fingers to make the ears show. Sew wings on either side. Fold over feet and sew each one together and then sew them onto the bottom of the owl. I sewed the top of the beak onto the face of the owl then sewed the “point” down as well, making it stick out just a little. I used two buttons for eyes, but if this is for a younger child (younger than age 3), you should embroider the eyes on with black yarn.