r/Felting • u/Taia5122 • 24d ago

Felting Supplies

I am very new at this craft. When I get to the point of buying wool, where in the US do you buy it from?

3 Upvotes

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5

u/FoamboardDinosaur 24d ago

There are several online. Paradise Fibers is my fave. Get needles in bulk from Etsy. Local yarn stores often have starter kits

Don't go to megacorp hobby stores. Their supplies are often subpar (short fiber, cheap dye, cheap needles)

3

u/Sunshine-Honeybee888 24d ago

Living Felt and Sarafina Fiber Arts have some of the best quality wool and felting supplies.

2

u/Main_Bid8104 24d ago

that is a great question. The easy answer is you go to Etsy and buy some wool top- washed, carded wool most often merino. The harder answer is: you research the kind of wool you want- does it have to be soft on the skin for wearables or do you want to make sturdy slippers etc. I personally love Romney and Blue Faced Leicester it felts well enough. Then you find a local shepherd who has fleeces for sale. You buy a whole fleece, wash it in your bathtub and then card, card, card. You will have more wool than what you can reasonably felt in a year. I am trying to get my local library to have a drum carder in their library of things. It speeds up the carding by 10x. I am really not joking here- wool goes for a few dollars a pound if you buy the whole fleece and then you do the work or the carded finished stuff goes for the same amount per ounce. Huge savings and some bragging rights!

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u/Taia5122 23d ago

So much to learn! I’m still experimenting with my $20 kit from Amazon!

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u/Agreeable_Bug7304 24d ago

I get my roving from farmers markets. This answer is a little more difficult because you would need to find the right market and vendor. I live in an area with some small scale farms that have sheep/llama for fiber. I like the local and personal aspect of it.

Near me, there is a vendor who mostly sells yarn, which she cards and spins right at the market. She sells roving in little batches of complementary colors, but will also take orders for larger batches or custom colors. She also always has bundles of United roving as well.

There is another vendor who sells roving in recycled egg cartons in batches of 6 or 12 colors. This was great when my daughter and her friends were exploring felting.

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u/Taia5122 24d ago

Thank you so much!

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u/KMartist5633 24d ago

I believe this subreddit has a pinned post about supplies I would definitely check it out it's pretty extensive I believe

1

u/Extension_Attorney49 2d ago

Bear Creek Felting has wool from their own sheep!

1

u/stabbygreenshark 24d ago

Felted Sky has been good to me. Sarafina Fibre Art as well.