Book Review: Simply Felt: 20 Easy and Elegant Designs in Wool

I think that when you become a full-blown fiberholic your desire to learn more about the actual fibers deepens.  You develop this desire to want to touch and pet the various fibers while learning of it's independent characteristics.  I know, having taken a class at the 2003 CGOA National Conference of crocheting with unspun fibers, my appreciation of fibers deepened!  Just the thought of taking crocheted projects and experimenting with felting them opened a new door of possibilities for me.  But, admittedly, being time-crunched with deadlines, obligations, and family life, I really haven't had the time to experiment as much with felting as I'd like.

So, while I await my turn to experiment more with felting, I visit the Grafton Fibers journal called "A Loom With a View" and live vicariously through Linda and her incredible felted creations.  Her work is so inspiring!  When I flipped through the book, Simply Felt, by Margaret Docherty and Jayne Emerson, I knew I had to bring it home to inspire me to get back into experimenting.

This book has 20 projects to try, and lets face it, yes, I do have unspun roving in my stash.  (I wonder, at times, if there's anything I don't have in my stash.)  Just flipping through the first few pages I learned that the art of felting has been around for some 600 years b.c. -- they have samples that were found in frozen Siberian tombs.  (That reminds me of the mummy of the little girl they found a few years back.  She was found high in the mountains in Peru wearing what they think is crochet -- I sure wish there'd be more information offered on this as it leads to proof that crochet is more than just a few hundred years old.)  To be able to trace the history of a particular art you're interested in is always fun, and it seems this book will help me get on that path for felting. 

As I continue to flip through the pages I find page after page of projects that are inspiring.  I love the photographs, and the little drawn "how to" pictures.  Since each project is done without the need to know how to knit or crochet, I think this is a great book for those that are interested in experimenting with just felting.  For those that know how to crochet, I think it will help blend the two art forms together even more as you can always add crochet to your work.   I'm looking forward to reading this book from cover to cover.  In the meantime, Linda, I'll continue to live vicariously through your projects.  :)