Needle Felted Ball Tutorial

I have been asked several times for a tutorial on how to do needle felted balls.  I'm pretty new to it myself, but I'm going to take it on!  I'm starting with balls I had already felted.  I'll post the tutorial next time I make them so I can take pictures along the way.

Materials:

100% Wool Ball

Wool Roving in colors of your choice - I dyed mine with Kool-Aid

Felting Needle (available at your local craft store)

This really is easier than it looks!  You want to start with your ball and your roving.

Take a small piece of the roving and hold it where you want your design to start.

Holding the roving in place with one hand, use the felting needle to poke straight into the roving and the ball.  Move the needle along slowly, poking right next to your last hole, along the shape you want the roving to take.  Keep poking and the roving will felt into the ball and become a solid piece of the felt.  You can see it starting to happen here.

This is what it looks like when a bit more is solidly in.

Just keep poking along and your design will start to come out strongly.  You can see it starting to shape up here.

You can add different colors and parts of the design in the same way.  Here is a bit of yellow going in.

Just keep adding in your design and colors as you go!  Keep poking right next to your last hole and it will all come together.  If you are having a particularly hard time getting it flat enough, you can put the ball in the toe of an old pair of nylons and stick it in the dryer for a few minutes.  The pounding action will knock the felt flat, but be careful because it can knock pieces off if they are too loose!

These are some pictures of the finished product:

I'm throwing things away.

I'm throwing things away.  I never do that!  I freecycle a ton of things.  We recycle everything we can.  Bean and I even save her bread crusts to feed to the birds.  But I am throwing things away.  A part of me feels rather guilty.  I can't help it, though.  It is the only way I have figured out how to compromise.  I'm throwing away Bean's plastic barrettes - one at a time.  I hate them.  Neon colored, "whimsical" kitties playing guitars - the last vestige of our life before we started getting rid of plastic.  They must go.  But Bean loves them.  She loves the ritual of reaching in the jar and picking out one (for a ponytail or half ponytail) or two (for pigtails).  She loves it.  So how can I just freecycle the lot?  How can I talk her into only having the pretty metal ones with the rhinestones?  The butterflies and dragonfly and the pretty mosaic bar?  I found them in my barrettes when I cleaned out my jar a few weeks ago and put them in hers.  She has worn them more than the plastic since, but occasionally she still picks the bright puce birds.  So I have started throwing them away when I find them out of the jar.  When Daddy has taken them out and left them on the bathroom sink upstairs at bath time, or they turn up on my desk.  One by one, they are disappearing, to be replaced with smaller metal ones, or real ribbon.  The only ones that I have even hesitated on are the blue bows.  These used to be her signature pieces - her blue bow barrettes.  She wore them every day, in pigtails, for weeks.  She loved them.  But they have lately been replaced by hot pink poodles.  I am looking at one lone baby blue bow barrette, sitting on my desk right now.  And I can't bring myself to pitch it, because it holds all of the joy of a two year old who has just learned to purse her little lips and say "Blooooooooooooooooooo!"  It is nearly real, though she has forgotten...

Eating Well - The Basics

I truly believe that the American dinner table is in crises.  I also firmly believe that a lot of that is because of lack of education vs. innundation of advertising.  In general, if it has to be advertised, it is likely not as good for you as something that isn't advertised.  I think that schools rarely teach people how to actually eat well (and the lunch programs in most schools definitely don't reinforce healthy eating).  So, I'm here to help!  This is a basic guide to eating well.  I suggest that no one overhaul their diet all at once.  The best thing to do is take it a step at a time, and when one step becomes a habit, start on a new one.  Also, don't try to "give up" food so much as try to find something to eat instead of a not so good choice.

*Get rid of any ingredient that is artificial.  This includes:

-artificial food dyes (if the ingredient label says blue, yellow, red, green, etc, generally followed by a number, it is an artificial dye)

-artificial flavors

-artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Nutra Sweet, Aspartame, etc)

This is a big step, but it seems easy.  You will really need to look at the labels on everything you buy.  Products as simple as cheese and butter will include artificial colorants.  These artificial ingredients are not easy for your body to digest and they are even harder on children.  While most medical professionals will not agree that these ingredients can be harmful, if you give them to a child who doesn't usually get them, you can usually watch their behavior change from eating them.

*Get rid of hydrogenated oils and/or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  These are just bad news.  And they are in a LOT of things.  You will really get good at reading labels here.  This is where you will likely really start tweaking your diet.  If you can't find the foods that you generally eat with no hydrogenated oils or HFCS, you can learn to make good alternatives, or look for a different brand.  Shopping at a better quality store may make things easier here.  Stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Wild Oats generally either don't have food with these ingredients or at least keep them to a minimum.  You may want to break this step into 2 steps and get rid of one first, then the other.  

I am always amazed when we are at "healthy" places (like hospitals and doctors' offices) and there are snacks offered, but none or few without the list of ingredients so far.

*Get rid of "white" foods.  If it is white, it has VERY likely been stripped of its true nutrients.  White flour, white sugar, white rice, white salt, white bread - all essentially devoid of nutrients.  My husband was awed a few years back when he read a newspaper article that called white bread "junk food".  I had been calling it that for years.    Whole grains and whole grain breads, brown rice, and red salt all have more nutrients than their white counter parts.  Organic cane juice, turbinado, succinat, honey and agave nectar are all good replacements for white sugar.  Our bodies process them all a little better and the sugar substitutes do retain some of the molasses and such, which is a bit better for you.  In my world, iceberg lettuce also qualifies as a white food.  It is basically water and if that is all you are looking for, it is great.  But there are so many more nutrients in romaine, red leaf, bib, etc.

*Begin adding more fresh food to your plate.  Try to serve a vegetable and a fruit at each meal.  Try to keep foods close to their original state quite often too.  A raw apple, sliced and enjoyed is better for you than an apple fried up with sugar and cinnamon.  Fried apples are a great treat sometimes, but we need to eat raw fruits and veggies very often as well.  The same is true for veggies.  Cooked veggies, in many cases, lose a lot of their value.  Try having a salad at dinner every night.  This is a great way to work in healthy veggies, fiber, and lots of antioxidents.  It also helps you to feel more full without eating a lot of higher calorie food.  If you already eat lots of fruits and veggies every day, then good for you!  Otherwise, five plus servings a day is what you should be aiming for.

Now, just this far in, you may be saying, "What am I going to eat?"  If you are used to eating a lot of processed or prepared foods, you may really be running short.  It is fairly easy, however, to find recipes to make your own version of the processed food.  In fact, most of what is processed can be made in a "make ahead" variety at home.  A jar with all of the ingredients and spices in the pantry ready to be put in a pot with water and cooked is a good example of your own homemade "prepared" food.  You can also easily make your own spice mixes - things like taco seasoning, chili seasoning, guacamole seasoning, etc.  Just go to a recipe site like allrecipes.com and search for the type of mix you would like to create.

I'll add more about eating well in future posts.  This is a lot to start with if you aren't used to eating well yet.

January 2

We got rid of our television!  I'm so excited!  It seems like a big step and yet, it was something we rarely used.  I do tend to take my Mommy time in front of Gray's Anatomy every week, but when it is in re-runs I don't watch at all.  And I decided it would be better for the family if I watched it after the wee ones are in bed, on the computer.  So, off the television went - to freecycle.  The room is so much lighter without the box taking up space in front of the window, and looks so much cleaner.  It has been much more enjoyable to sit on the couch since it was taken down.

My other New Year's exertion seems to be that the decluttering bug has bitten me again.  I am a natural declutter-er and I am far happy getting rid of things than accumulating them.  As a family, we have a goal of our home being 90+% plastic free.  So, culling plastic that has been replaced is a good outlet for the declutter bug.  I've been getting out bigger clothes for Bean (hand-me downs and freecycle receipts that have been in storage) and purging the polyester, nylon, rayon, acrylic, etc.  There has been quite a bit of New Year's cleaning going on as well.  Crafting is next!  I've nearly finished Bean's second mitten.  I don't know what will be next.  It seems that everything is priority over everything else.