ultimate stashbuster scarf

I had so much fun making the Waterfall felted scarf, and still had more ladder yarn and assorted scraps, so I decided to do another one, this time with a springtime flower garden color scheme.

It occurs to me that this type of scarf is The Ultimate Stashbuster -- just a couple of hours and multiple balls of random leftovers can be turned into something pretty and useful! As requested, I'll give some more details of how I did it here, but there are better tutorials elsewhere on the Web -- just Google nuno felting tutorial and you'll get some more specifics. There are also plenty of books, probably available at your library, with felting info.

Here's what I started with:

I cleared off a long span of my kitchen counter and laid out a long piece of this plastic foam packing stuff that I have lots of (another option: bubble wrap). Leaving space clear at each end for the fringe (which I didn't want to felt), I laid out wisps of Firestar fiber for a bit of sheen, then wisps of well-drafted roving, then strand after strand of yarn, then roving, then Firestar. I ultimately made it about twice a dense as you see here, scooting everything a little closer together.

Covered the whole thing with a piece of nylon screen, wet it down with slightly sudsy water, and gently rubbed in circles so the fibers could mash together. Carefully lifted the screen so the fibers don't felt through it, tucked loose wisps under around the edges, replaced the screen and did a bit more light rubbing in circles. Removed the screen and carefully rolled the whole thing, including the plastic foam stuff, around a foam noodle (you know, those fun floaty things for use in a swimming pool) and tied the bundle in place with strips of fabric from an old t-shirt.

Next, I opened a beer and turned on some good rockin' tunes. Yes, this is a required step for all feltmaking and soapmaking fun 'round here. :-)

I rolled the bundle back and forth on the counter about 100 times ("50...glug glug - ahh...50...glug glug - ahh"), then turned the bundle around and rolled in the other direction, same amount. Opened it up to see how it's doing. The fibers were starting to felt together, as determined by pinching a bit and lifting to see if it's all attached. I put another layer of the foam stuff over top and folded it in half, then in quarters, then rolled it around the noodle perpendicularly to the previous time. Repeated the rolling, glugging, flipping, rolling process.

When it was all well adhered and could be picked up as a single item, I removed it from the plastic foam, folded it up, and dunked it in hot water. Squeezed out, placed in open plastic bag and gently dropped on the counter a few times. Repeat the dunks in hot water, squeeze out, place in bag, and thwack on counter a bunch more times for it to shrink and felt together more firmly.

Hang to dry and wear with a smile.