Needle action

Felted fiber hot off the FeltLOOM

A felting loom speeds fiber to felt

Needle felting is fun, costs little to get started and is portable. But it's hardly suitable for making larger pieces like those beautiful hats and jackets that I so admire. 

For that order of felting, you need the big guns of the fiber felting world. 

I had heard of felting machines, but had not seen one in action. Indeed, the machines, which are designed and manufactured in Kentucky, are quite impressive. Kris and I spent Sunday afternoon seeing what the FeltLOOM would do with a bag of roving. 

After laying out the requisite three crosshatched layers of roving, the rollers grabbed it,  rolled it under hundreds of felting needles and spit it out as a flat and felted sheet. It took us far longer to lay out the roving than for the needles to felt the material. And no Band-aids are needed for this operation: The needles are safely contained within plexiglas-like shields.

It was a fun afternoon....and although it is one piece of equipment that I do not intend to acquire, my crazy mind still generates possible projects and 'what if's.' 

Fiber on the felt loom