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Do I need a special needle to needle felt?

 
steward
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I've never needle felted. At all. I only have normal pins and needles and a tapestry needle. No felting needles. i'd like to felt two wool felt sheets together. Can I do this with felting needles? How?

Thanks!
 
pollinator
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Needle felting is just to mix the fibres, so the needles are usually barbed- too smooth and they wouldn't catch the fibres and move them.

For larger pieces you probably don't want to use a single needle either- stick a few in the end of a cork or something to speed up the process!
 
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I've got one like shown in this link  https://www.hawthornhandmade.com/pages/guide-to-felting-needles
and I've never used it.  It was a method that looked like it had so many possibilities and the 'tool' was inexpensive.

A felting needle has small barbs in the end that, when stabbed through wool, catch on the scales of the fibre and push them together. The more and more you stab, the more fibres matt together slowly turning the wool into solid felt.



If I can find mine I'll send it to you...

I've seen attachments for a sewing machine that have multiple needles and also ones to use by hand.
I think they also have a plastic gizmo that protects the user from the needles more than the single 'stabber' kind.
 
Nicole Alderman
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Judith Browning wrote:I've got one like shown in this link  https://www.hawthornhandmade.com/pages/guide-to-felting-needles
and I've never used it.  It was a method that looked like it had so many possibilities and the 'tool' was inexpensive.

A felting needle has small barbs in the end that, when stabbed through wool, catch on the scales of the fibre and push them together. The more and more you stab, the more fibres matt together slowly turning the wool into solid felt.



I've seen attachments for a sewing machine that have multiple needles and also ones to use by hand.
I think they also have a plastic gizmo that protects the user from the needles more than the single 'stabber' kind.



AH! So there's barbs at the end of the needle! I have my internet browser on low-quality images to save on data, so the needles just looked like straight needles, and I was really confused as to how a straight needle could felt something!

If I can find mine I'll send it to you...



That's so sweet, but don't worry about it! I just ordered this one as it was only $5.87, just over $9 cheaper than the same one at my craftstore. I like to buy local when I can, but this deal was a bit to good to pass up (and, I needed something about $5 to get free shipping on other things I was ordering, LOL!)
 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
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