Felted Easter Eggs

from Ann Merriwether, Nyala Farm Alpacas

This Fun Project really celebrates Spring. In this project you will learn how how to make

Two Kinds of Alpaca Fiber Felted Easter Eggs

Get some of those plastic eggs and get ready to felt around them. With these directions you can make two kinds of Easter eggs.
For the first kind you need:
• Carded dyed fiber
• Plastic Easter eggs
• Soap (Dawn dish washing liquid works well)
• A large dish with warm water
• An old knee high stocking
• A bit of yarn or string to make a hanger.
• An embroidery needle to thread the hanger though the end of the egg

1. Wrap the egg in three or four layers of dyed alpaca (carded fiber works better than un-carded fiber).
2. Stick the wrapped egg in the toe of an old knee-high stocking and loosely knot the stocking behind the egg.
3. Dip the whole thing in warm soapy water (a large bowl with just a dash of Dawn dishwashing liquid works well).
4. Squeeze and pat the egg in the stocking until the fiber seems to be felting around it. Don’t squeeze and pat so
much that the fiber felts right through the stocking.
5. Remove the egg from the stocking and squeeze and pat it some more. If you want to felt the fiber really tightly to
the egg and do it faster, when you take it out of the stocking throw it into your dryer while the egg is still damp.
Let it bang around in there and it will felt really tightly
6. You can make little hangers for them by stringing yarn through one end with an embroidery needle. Repeat with lots of colors and make a nice felted Easter Egg Tree.
7. You can just leave the felted egg on the plastic eggs or you can cut them off (bandage scissors work well) and have hatching eggs! Dye some fiber yellow (I use a mix of orange and lemonade Kool-aid to get a brighter yellow) and needle felt a little hatching chick!

felted easter eggs

Foam felted eggs with needle felted designs
You will need:
• Carded Dyed fiber
• Styrofoam Craft Eggs
• Soap (Dawn Dish washing liquid works well)
• A large dish with warm water
• An old knee high stocking
• A felting needle
• A bit of yarn or string to make a hanger.
• An embroidery needle to string the yarn through the felted egg.
The other way to make felted eggs is to purchase some Styrofoam eggs at the local craft store. They come in a variety of sizes. Any size will work it just depends what size egg you want to make. You felt the fiber to the egg in the same way as you do with the plastic eggs. You are not going to cut the egg off of these but you can needle felt lovely designs on them since there is a foam egg inside. Some ideas are just abstract designs like spots, or rings.
Alternatively, I like to do bunnies, chicks, flowers, even tiny little Easter baskets. You can then put a hanger on them and hang them up on your Easter egg tree. These make lovely presents! Happy Felting!

Thanks so much to Ann Merriwether of Nyala Farm Alpacas for sharing this awesome project with us. Ann lives in New York on a farm with both alpacas and sheep. She admits that she and her family are “fiberholics” and she is happy to teach others the joys of fiber arts.

What fiber or Easter projects are you working on? Leave a comment and share with us.

Airy Fairy scarf and button

On day 2 of the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF), I took two dyeing classes, and fell in love with sheep. Here are some of the pictures I captured with my phone at SAFF last Saturday in Asheville, North Carolina.

Dyed boucle yarn

Young girl spinning

Banana Fiber and Recycled Sari Silk

Dyed braids of fiber

Dyed fiber locks

Sparkly, shiny, colorful yarn

Alpaca crochet purse cover

More from the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair:

SAFF Day 1

The Animals from SAFF.

Bundle of Yarn at SAFF

SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair) is the first fiber fair I have ever attended. My reaction?

WOW! I didn’t know there was that much yarn…

(I took these pictures with my phone so please forgive the quality. Hoping to bring my real camera tomorrow.)

view from the "stands" - which is a great place to eat banana pudding btw

Shiny fiber at SAFF

Cute alpaca needlefelting ornaments at Frostglen's booth

I tried hard to meet up with some Twitter buds today. In fact I managed to accost a nice red haired lady with glasses and the right aged baby – mistaking her for @PixiePurls. Yes, I was mortified. Fortunately she (and her friend to whom baby belonged) were very gracious and I made a new Ravelry friend. One who likes alpaca fleeces.  Good thing fiber lovers are such a nice bunch.

(Fiber growers – I’m not suggesting you accost strangers in order to sell fleeces, but…whatever works.)

This booth was all about felting supplies!

I took an all-day needlefelting class today called “Painting with Wool”. It was super fun, I learned so much, and I’m now exhausted. Blog post on that coming up soon…

Artistic Skeins

For wannabee artsy spinners like me – THESE are fabulous. They spoke to me. They said, “We want to go home with you. We love alpaca, and we will fit in your carry-on luggage quite nicely.” They have ribbons and feathers and all sorts of “crazy” stuff. In love….

Dyed Mohair locks by the ounce

Dyed Merino top

This was my favorite picture of the day. I love colorful fiber! Don’t you? Gorgeous and full of possibilities….

See also:

SAFF 2009 – Saturday

The Animals from SAFF

During the World Alpaca Conference I had the chance to stop by my friend Holly William’s vendor booth. Holly is from Lasso the Moon Alpaca Farm. She is a talented glass and fiber artist. Holly’s latest favorite is nuno felting.

Holly also teaches fiber arts classes, including needlefelting, nuno felting, and wet felting. She and her husband, Courtney, are wonderful people. I can’t think of a trip that would be more fun than visiting their alpaca farm and learning new fiber arts skills.

Share what you’re doing!

Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival!

To participate:

1. Add the permalink to a specific blog post that features something Fiber Art related, rather than your general blog address and not your Etsy store. (Please DO put a link in your blog post that takes us to your store though.)
2. Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Use the button or a text link to http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com.
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!
4. Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted.

Sheri is teaching a Beginning Spinning class here at our farm, Fairhope Alpacas, tomorrow. I am so excited to learn to spin. Today she plans to give me tips on dyeing, felting, and more. Sheri is also going to walk me through washing the fleeces. At this point, having over 100 fleeces to wash seems to be an insurmountable obstacle, but she’s going to show me how to do several at a time outdoors. The kids and I should be able to knock it out the first month of summer. (I realize I can send them out to be washed, but that adds to the cost with the washing AND shipping – I’m going to weigh my options at this point.) And in this economy, I am reminded every day to do more for myself and rely less on paying others to do things. (I’d love to have 6 employees, but that will have to wait for the economic upturn!)

It is my intention to blog everything I can and even take some video this weekend. So check back to see all the fiber trouble we get into!

Please tell at least one fiber friend and ask them to participate in Fiber Arts Friday! And be sure to mention Fiber Arts Friday in your blog posts and link to it. Can’t wait to see what you’ve got going on this week on your blogs!

Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival!

To participate:

1. Add the permalink to a specific blog post that features something Fiber Art related, rather than your general blog address and not your Etsy store. (Please DO put a link in your blog post that takes us to your store though.)
2. Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Use the button or a text link to http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com.
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!
4. Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted.

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

This week our featured Fiber Artist is Karen Gielen of Cre8tive KJ’s Corner. Karen is also an Alpaca Breeder in Minnesota! This week she has written this amazing tutorial on how to make these lovely felted journals. Her instructions take you step by step through the process, complete with lots of pictures. What a great gift idea. I love this project. Thanks KJ for sharing it with us.

KJ is a momma of 6. She knits (both needle and loom), crochets, felts, spins, dyes, does hairpin lace and daisy loom crochet. You name it, she’s done it! How incredible is it that she has takes the time to be creative and share it with us? Please visit her blog and leave her a comment. She’s shearing her alpacas tomorrow! (Maybe she’ll post pics.)

Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival!

To participate:

1. Add the permalink to a specific blog post that features something Fiber Art related, rather than your general blog address and not your Etsy store. (Please DO put a link in your blog post that takes us to your store though.)
2. Link back to Fiber Arts Friday from your post so that your readers can come and see everyone else’s projects! Use the button or a text link to http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com.
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and leave comments! That’s what helps us all connect!
4. Double-check to make sure your link works and goes to the right page so it doesn’t get deleted.

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.