Felt So Good 70+ Felted and Plain Wool Designs For You and Your Home by Tone Rørseth

Such an exciting book review!  I was given the opportunity to review this book from Sellers Publishing and I was immediately excited!  I went straight to the internet to check out a preview of the book.  You can check out the preview on Amazon here.  I was antsy and stalked our mailman and the delivery guys until it finally arrived!  I am just getting in to felting (aside from accidentally felting fleeces- oops!) and I was really excited to start flagging projects to do.

Felt So Good 70+ Felted Plain Wool Designs For You and Your Home by Tone Rørseth

Another beautiful cover!  The projects immediately draw you in and there are examples of easy and more advanced items on the cover which is nice because it brings in advanced felters and doesn't scare off newer felters.  The author's forward says it all with "You only need a little enthusiasm and imagination.  No education in crafts is necessary."

The Basics
The book has a quick well written summary of the materials used in the projects and well written information on the techniques used for the projects.  Coming from a fiber background I can suggest both roving and top.  For felting both work well and I will include some fiber information at the end of this review for good felting fibers.  The book is very well printed and all of the photography is lovely.  I didn't expect any less from an author who is also a photo stylist though.  (She is pretty awesome!  I will get to that later too.)  The back of the book is loaded with patterns.  They are positioned well on the page so that you do not do much damage to the spine of your book when you copy them.  You can purchase the book directly from the publisher here.  It is also available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  

Projects

All of the projects are well written and easy to follow.  Every one of the project instructions is very simple and concise.  Seriously the hardest thing in any of the projects is sewing which can easily be done by hand if you do not own a machine or do not know how to operate one.  For a lot of the projects if you have crafting supplies or old wool clothing on hand you may not need to purchase anything at all!  I love impromptu crafting especially because the nearest craft store is two towns away!  As I read each project I took note of the projects that I can do without buying any supplies and flagged those and I flagged a few that I wanted to pick up some new supplies for and a few projects I have in mind for craft time with my kids.  As a mother of two young children it is double points for projects that I can get my kids involved in.  Especially things that my under 2 year old can help with! I have already started a few Braided Headbands for my daughter and my niece.  I also have roving all sectioned out and ready to make the Necklace with Felted Wool Balls, My husband also has surgery this week so I specially dyed some roving for him to create the Bird Pincushion while he is home.

The Author

Tone Rørseth has a background in jewelry making and design.  She is a graduate from the Beckmans School of Design in Stockholm, Sweden.  She got in to felting when her little one started school and she joined a felting group with the other moms.  It inspired her to create this wonderful book after she realized how easy and rewarding it is to felt.  I spent some time trying to find some more of her work but just about everything is in a foreign language.  The book after all is Scandinavian felt designs. Nevertheless it is very apparent that she is very competent at what she does.  She is also a photo stylist for various interior design magazines.  (She is on the inside for trending fashions!)

Final Breakdown
I am very excited to be doing crafts from this book.  I ordered some felt and picked up some from the craft store.  It was a little short for my headbands so I improvised on the first ones and Tone even says to make the projects your own.  I used some cream felt, a 1/4 inch orange ribbon and a 1/2 inch brown ribbon and I am going to add the orange flower to it for a real fall inspired headband.  I raided my craft closet and picked out numerous ribbons to use in headbands.  I cannot wait until my longer felt comes in!  I am also on the hunt at local thrift shops for sweaters to complete a few projects.  My kids and I are going to make Wool Ball Necklaces this week.  We were unfortunately delayed last week by the lack of skewers in our household.  Oops!  All of the patterns seem very easy to create and would be great projects for a lot of ages so you can get your kids involved too or give the book as a gift to older kids or teenagers too!  I think a lot of the projects would definitely catch a teen's eye and keep them busy!  I really enjoyed how easy the book is.  Simple but all of the projects are very lovely.  They would make great handmade gifts or for your holiday craft festivals or stock items for your online shop.  I would definitely recommend this book to others.  Especially those who really enjoy wool or fiber in general but don't know where to start.  There is a lot you can do with very little investment.


Fiber Supplies
I have learned the hard way what will not felt so please let me share the knowledge that a very large group of fiber junkies has shared with me: down breeds just don't felt.  Not how you want them to.  It is easy to find people willing to share fiber.  Different types of wool are great for different  purposes and some are multipurpose.  Merino is a great felting fiber.  Look for plain Merino not a blend and be sure to make sure it is not super wash.  Super wash is specifically intended to not felt.  Suffolk and Southdown also do not felt well- if at all and neither does silky mohair.  (Oops!)  I can say though that Targhee, Cheviot, Rambouillet, and BFL all felt well.  Merino is what has been recommended to me time and time again.

As far as tools you don't have to look to far!  Michaels carries a ton of different felting tools and they are reasonably priced.  You can also get felt and small bits of roving there too,  I will write a post specifically about fiber products in the next few days with more information.