Lingering in the nut aisle: Crafty

Melissa has a tradition.
She always makes the gifts she gives.
Over the past few years she's given altered-book style photo albums, crocheted purses and throws, handmade scarves, books of poems and Haiku, photo calendars and felted ornaments.
Last fall, she made a wet-felted scarf for a friends' birthday present.
We had never wet-felted before, so the task was a little daunting.
For me at least.
I remember when I was in first grade. I used to get Highlights magazine. Oh, I loved that magazine! I used to read the crafts pages and I remember yearning, yes yearning, to make the crafts.
But I was too afraid.
I don't remember whether I asked for help and it wasn't forthcoming, or whether I kept my desires to myself, but I never once worked up the nerve to make one of those crafts.
This somewhat irrational fear - okay, let's be honest, it's totally irrational - still plagues me to this day.
Fortunately I have Melissa to prod me along and push me through my mental hurdles.
Poor child.
Can you say "burden?"
Anyway, I managed to conquer my fear and the two of us embarked on a wet-felting journey together.
I must admit, it is a little less scary with company.

First we laid the silk scarf out on towels.

Next, Melissa took wool roving and laid it on top of the scarf.

Once the roving was in place, we laid a piece of plastic netting over the top.

Then sprayed the whole scarf with water.

Next we rubbed ivory soap over the whole scarf, beginning the felting process. This was hard work!

As usual, we had plenty of extra help...

We then further wetted the whole mess and began rolling and unrolling the scarf felt the roving to the silk ...

We rolled and rolled and rolled. Since we didn't really know what we were doing, we almost over-felted. It was really difficult to extract the scarf from the netting.