Pounding into felt

I spent yesterday morning leaning over my tub and pounding wool fiber into felt.

When you comb wool fiber with wool combs, there is some that gets left behind in the combs during the process. The really bad stuff is usually thrown away, while the better stuff can be saved and carded if you have carding combs or a drum carder.

I decided to keep even the really bad stuff. I've been carding it and saving it. A stray cat lives near my daughter's boyfriend's apartment. Someone converted an old recyling bin into a little house for it so that it has someplace to go out of the weather. It's been really cold here and I thought I would save this fiber and try to make a felted cat bed for this kitty.

I began the process yesterday, deciding to go the pounding route instead of the spinning into yarn, knitting, and then felting in the washing machine route.

My pounding muscles are sore, but I made a nice piece of thick felt. It wasn't really enough for a bed with cozy walls, so I found some scraps of fleece fabric and ended up making a bed with walls stuffed with poly stuffing and the felt as the floor of the bed.

One of my own cats wanted to use it right away when it was finished.