Detta's Spindle in MN and needle felt friends

Oddly enough, in my attempts to get a descent picture in "to bright" lighting, the thing that seemed to work best is using the flash.....go figure .
I just wanted to share some of my new critters made with natural fiber from Detta's Spindle . (Click on the name to go to her website and find some reasonably priced fiber ) . After playing email tag for a bit and trying to chose which fibers to try, my order finally got here this week and I was thrilled . It was several pds of both Mill Ends and undyed wool fiber . I just read an article the other day about dying using the oven instead of microwave or steaming but it didn't give temp or time, so may involve some experimenting as I hope to dye some of the natural light grey/brown and white merino . I bought some beautiful brown alpaca over dyed in peacock colors and loved it so am hoping to achieve similar effect .

The above fiber is some lovely browns in subtle shades that I think worked nicely on my animals . My favorite is the Mill Ends with lighter reddish brown mixed with mohair . Other then the natural brown merino, the other fibers are around 27 micron and felt some where inbetween super fast Romney and slower merino . It's fairly soft to the touch as top/roving but feels a little scratchy once solidly felted .

The face and paw pads are merino and merino/silk blend . I tried taking them from different angles to see which showed their best features but not sure I can tell the difference .

Anyway, I shouldn't be surprised that the natural fibers look more "natural" then all the dyed fibers I have tried but I have a long way to go before I can actually needle felt an animal that looks like something you might find in the woods and not just running around my weird dreams .

Happy felting !