Last Sunday was our second get together at Killester and what a great morning it was. Marie Dunne, a natural teacher and born entertainer wowed us with her beautiful merino and viscose cowls made using a novel Russian technique. She found it on YouTube during the lockdown. 

It is not translated to English, but gives a great idea of the process anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypegN3DmkWA&t=1s

The process began with her laying out eight even horizontal strips of merino onto flat plastic (no bubble wrap was used at all!). Followed by prizing apart the viscose (dark green in photo) and laying it on top in small cut pieces. 

It was a slow process to lay out with a delicate touch, though Breda and Clodagh were on hand to help speed up. 

Water next. Lots of water, thoroughly wetting it and flipping over to repeat the laying out to produce a continuous circular seamless cowl. 

A quick coffee break in the very capable hands of Rita and her now infamous homemade fruit cake while Marie continued to lay out the fibres. 

After coffee Marie surprised us all with the shrinking technique. Just gentle shaking and flapping.That’s it. It actually felted really well. There wasn’t enough time to completely finish the cowl but we learnt enough and could be confident to try it ourselves. 

To finish, Marie was fantastic to give up her time to teach and entertain us with her knowledge and stories. She even told us about the naked felting couple! Who knew!! Worth getting out of bed on a Sunday morning? Sadly there’s no photo!

We would love more of our members to come forward and join our Sunday Session team to demonstrate any aspect of felting whether advanced or not. So if you feel so inclined you can email Deirdre Crofts at decrofts@gmail.com

Or Fiona Leech at fmrleech@gmail.com

Thank you.