Felting (beads)

I have found an activity that is just perfect to do with kids on rainy days (I would say ages three and up but if you have younger ones that really love their crafty stuff, go for it!)

 A little bit of a disclaimer here: I am not a huge fan of felted goods. I think it's the texture that puts me off.

I had seen the Felt-a-licious on-line workshop promoted on Emily Falconbridge's blog and thought it looked interesting, but not enough to sign up for it (with my aversion to felt and all, lol). Not long after I saw with gorgeous little felted play scene on Emily's blog and thought maybe I would give felting a go after all. I think this is so cute, I would play with it myself.

By that time the workshop was over but I was still able to sign up and have access to all the tutorials and videos that the workshop participants had.
I thought it would be something good to do with the kids, but I didn't have any immediate plans to tackle it (so many other things to do!).
And then the rain set in, and we spent a morning making felt beads (and also a little phone pouch which is as ugly as sin and I can't quite bring myself to photograph it)

We were wet felting, using wool tops (also called wool roving) which I didn't photograph before we started but you can see some here in Nicole Lawrence's Etsy shop (Nicole is a long time felter who ran the workshop with Emily).
We pulled our wool tops apart, dunked it into warm, soapy water, squeezed out the excess water and started rolling.

I have to say I think the whole process is pretty therapeutic.
Here is Ruby with one of her beads (a bit cracked but please don't bother us with the details).

She loved doing this. So while I don't love, love, love felted stuff, in general, I don't mind the beads and this is one of those things where, for me, it is the process of making them that is the best part (often I'm just chasing the end result).

Some of our beads which we will string together to make a little bracelet.

We have felted a couple of times since our first go (still just doing beads), and I have bought Ruby some wool tops (roving) of her very own which will be part of her birthday  present in a couple of weeks.

P.S. My blog is getting a big make-over and I am super excited about that!!!