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Soft yet tough, felt is a versatile, malleable material used for everything from sculpting to sewing. Then there’s felt needling, a beginner-friendly sculpting method with a range of possibilities. The process involves tangling fibers together using a barbed tool, and it requires a special kind of combed wool to be able to make your own felt. Felting wool is available in a range of colors and is most commonly made of merino wool, which is soft but—be warned—can have a barn-like smell depending on where and how it’s sourced and treated. We’ve scoured the market to find high-quality options that will tolerate the felting process; find the best wool for your needs, below.
1. Glaciart One Spinning Fiber
Featuring 20, 0.35-ounce skeins per package in lots of colors, this merino wool is vibrant and thick. The soft material felts without fighting back, and the fibers won’t shed or pill. The colors are also luscious and even, and though the fiber is smooth, it provides plenty of grip. Ethically sourced, this merino wool is acquired by free-trade practices from the best sheep farms in Australia, so you can feel good about your purchase.
2. Desert Breeze Merino Wool Roving
If you prefer to purchase single skeins of wool, we like the wool roving from Desert Breeze, which comes in relatively large bundles weighing one ounce each. Choose from colors like bold cinnabar or a serene aqua. Odor-free, slightly silky, and strong, this wool meets all basic expectations and then some. You can felt all kinds of shapes and the fibers will stay in place.
3. Wistyria Editions
This Michigan-based veteran of felting supplies puts together beautifully curated packages of wool in complementary colors. This pack of eight wool spools includes sophisticated neutrals like camel, smoke, and cocoa; you can get other packs in themes like pastel, “hydrangeas,” and “pumpkin patch.” Made of ultra-fine 100 percent wool roving, the fibers are super soft and durable. Packaged in a handy resealable pouch, your material will stay in tip-top shape. Each roving ball weighs 0.22 ounces.
4. Revolution Fibers Corriedale Wool Roving
If you’re a seasoned felter, chances are you’re also dyeing your own wool. Revolution Fibers sells clean undyed wool in generously sized skeins, each weighing one pound—enough for lots of dye projects! Each is sourced from Corriedale sheep, which are cross-bred from merinos and Lincoln sheep to result in wool that’s soft but has a long staple length. The wool works well for larger designs and presents a consistent natural color throughout.
5. Desert Breeze Maori Wool
Composed of a combination of New Zealand wools, this wool is specially blended to meet the demands of needle felting and wet felting. Each skein is soft, vibrant, and nontoxic, and the fibers separate nicely and evenly. Each skein comes in 3.5 ounces—more than lots of other individually sold skeins on the market—and in six colors. The material is ethically sourced from New Zealand sheep farms with stringent animal welfare regulations.