9.14.2007

Buyer's remorse

I just purchased a slightly embarrassing amount of vegan fiber to hand dye and spin up. Is there any interest in vegan spinning kits with hand dyed fiber, a drop spindle and instructions? Alternately, is there any interest in vegan needle felting kits? If so, when I get the fiber I will make up some kits and stick them on the store's etsy site.

6 comments:

Sarah said...

Yes yes yes to all!

Zabet said...

This may be a very stupid question, but what vegan fiber felts? I thought you had to have the little hook-y bits on the fiber like wool does... Enlighten me!

BTW - my verification word is SMAPSOFT! Wouldn't that be a great band name?

Robyn Wade said...

You can needle felt with almost any fiber (including polyester fiberfill) since needle felting doesn't depend on the properties of the fiber to produce the grabs and tangles. The felting needle grabs and tangles the individual fibers to create felt (kinda like making dreadlocks.)

That being said, some fibers work better than others for needle felting. I have found that hemp fibers are very difficult to deal with and create a harsh, dense piece. When you use soysilk, you tend to need about 50% more fiber for a piece than you need with wool. Cotton and rayon balls (like the ones in your bathroom and in pill bottles)tend to act a little closer to wool when needle felting. The end results all tend to be at least a bit denser than wool, but the extra weight can be nice.

Now aren't you glad you asked. :)

Zabet said...

Needlefelting didn't even occur to me for some reason. I was thinking wet felting. D'oh!

L. Marie said...

I'm interested!

Unknown said...

hmm.. interesting! when you heard about felting, it always about wool.

if you're talking about roving, then i think you would do well selling it to make thrummed mittens. i'd love to make a pair and remembered seeing soy roving all over (ebay and etsy). i recently looked and only found one seller.