Dimensions Needle Felted Snowman Kit

When my sister came to visit one of our objectives was to learn as much as we could about needle felting and working with roving.

I had bought two mini roving kits from Dimensions. One Dimensions Needlecrafts Needle Felted Character Kit, Snowman for making a snowman (shown above) and Dimensions Needlecrafts Needle Felted Character Kit, Penguin for making a penguin (also shown above) that I thought would be a good introduction into working with the fiber so we started there.

We just wanted to get the feel of the fiber and how easy or hard it would be to work with before we embarked on our free style hand creations and working with the molds we had bought. I took the snowman and my sister took the penguin.

The snowman was a no felting mold necessary kit that came with the wool roving (white, black, orange, and blue), felting needle, felting mat, embroidery needle, thread and step-by-step instructions.  It called for twigs for arms which were not included.

The instructions were easy to follow and warned that the single felting needle was sharp, which it certainly was as evidenced by the two photo's below where it actually drew blood on my finger.  This is definitely not a kit or craft for small children.  The needles are just to sharp and when you prick yourself it really hurts.

Basically, the idea was to form three felted balls for the snowman and felt the three balls together.  To felt the balls you rolled the white roving into a small ball using the guide they provided for their size and kept inserting the single felting needle into the ball until it was firm, round and the size required.  This is accomplished by holding the roving in your fingers and inserting the single felting needle into the roving while trying not to prick yourself or inserting the roving into the felting while rolling the ball on the enclosed foam board.  Again, the objective is to not prick your fingers which is easier said than done.

To felt the balls together you keep inserting the single felting needle through the top ball into the ball below it until the roving is felted together and will not pull apart. It's quite amazing how strong the roving gets and how well weaved it is when you've done this.

The next step was to form the orange carrot nose using the roving provided and trying not to prick yourself. I ended up creating several noses before I got one small enough to fit my snowman's head. Then you position the nose on the face and using the single felting needle gently felt the nose into the white roving of the head.

After this they wanted you to thread the needle and embroidery floss to create the snowman's eyes and mouth. I opted instead to roll tiny balls of the black roving and then gently needle felt them into the head for his eyes and mouth. I thought this would look better than the thread.

Next they wanted you to roll the black felt between your fingers to create two tiny buttons for his chest and then needle felt them into the middle ball. I created three black balls for this and needle felted two into the middle ball for his chest and one in the center of the bottom ball.

The blue ear muffs came next. Again, you rolled the blue roving into a small ball the size shown on the snowman pattern and needle felted them until they were firm. I pricked my fingers several times doing this.

Once they were firm the instructions were to needle felt them into the sides of the head for the ear muffs.

Following this the instructions called for using the enclosed embroidery floss to create the ear muffs band.  I opted instead to roll and needle felt the blue roving until I got a flat band that was long enough for the band. Then I gently needle felted the ends of the band into the top sides of the ear muffs that I had already felted onto his head.

The pattern suggested using twigs for the arms and gluing them to the sides for arms. I opted to use small cinnamon sticks for my snowman's arms and glued them into the sides for arms.

I was pleased with how my needle felted snowman came out.  It didn't look exactly like the Dimensions picture, but it looked good none the less and I was happy with it.

Both my sister and I felt that the two Dimensions kits were a good introduction into needle felting, getting used to using the needle, and working with roving. Everything came with the kit so there was no need to buy anything else just to give needle felting a try.

As mentioned, my sister needle felted the penguin from the Dimensions Needlecrafts Needle Felted Character Kit, Penguin (also shown above) so she'll have to blog about her experience with that.

Please respect My Terms of Use:  All patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products © 2004-2023 Linda Walsh Originals-Designs by Linda Walsh. All rights reserved. Commercial selling or reselling by any means prohibited without the written consent of Linda Walsh.

Patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products are for personal use only. You may not modify, photocopy, download, upload, post, transmit, display, perform, publish, license, reprint, create derivative works from, mass duplicate, re-sell, digitize, and reproduce in any other form (print, digital or electric) or commercially apply, embed, share, Email, or redistribution in any other means. Use of any of the above is prohibited without the written permission of Linda Walsh.

However, you may link to my website(s)/blog(s) and the individual page(s)/blog post(s) (including 1 picture) but do not copy, reprint or duplicate my website(s)/blog(s) or individual page(s)/post(s ) without my permission.

Items made from Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns are intended for personal use for fun or small scale personal and business profit as long as you credit us with the design. Large scale commercial use (i.e. mass production) of items made from Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns are by permission only.

Please see my Terms and Conditions for additional information.

Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.

Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber

If you love crafting with fiber, love using roving for dolls, love free style needle felting, love needle felting with penny rugs or wool felt, love needle felting accessories and decorations, and love spinning or dyeing roving you'll be happy to know that my sister and brother-in-laws alpaca farm, Rock Garden Alpacas is now selling their alpaca's fiber.  

Even though it's my baby sister and you might think I'm a little biased I have no problem whatsoever telling you that it's exceptional roving.  I've used it, I've loved using it, and I will continue to use it for my dolls and needle felt creations.

My sister and her husband established Rock Garden Alpacas in 2011 as a new and exciting adventure. They have full Peruvian, Full Accoyo and Perucoyo Huacaya Alpacas and are currently establishing their herd. They sell fiber and fiber products from their herd and their store will continue to grow as their herd does.

My sister's roving is of such fine quality and consistency that it is sought after my spinners and knitters.  If you'd like to read the customer reviews from her Etsy shop please click here.

If you'd like to learn more about her alpaca fiber products please click here for her RockGardenAlpacas Etsy shop.

My Sister Came To Visit and Work A Little! YIPPEE!!

It's only been a week since my sister was here for a visit, but I think she'll be surprised at how much I've accomplished with my needle felting since then.

It would have been nice if she was here for a whole week of crafts fun and games but we had work to do on her new Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber website and work to do on her Inspired Creations By D wall art quilt kits. So, we were a little busy.

However, I'd be lying if I told you we didn't have a chance to play. We did go fabric shopping one day and, well, truth be told we did buy some fabric. We had a delightful time shopping and I must admit we probably bought more fabric and crafts supplies then we needed, but we couldn't pass up such good deals. At least that's what we told ourselves.

We went fabric shopping first and then went to my favorite lunch restaurant - California Pizza Kitchen. I just love their garlic chicken pizza and for the last twenty years every time I've had lunch there that's what I've ordered. In fact, most of the time whoever I went with whether it was my mother, brother, granddaughters, or grandsons we ALWAYS had the Garlic Chicken Pizza. Since I knew what I wanted I wasn't even going to look at the menu but for some reason decided to look anyways. I was really disappointed when I couldn't find it on the menu and then the waitress told me they didn't have it anymore. Boy, was I disappointed. My sister suggested we try a garlic cheese pizza. Needless to say the pizza wasn't anywhere near as good as their Garlic Chicken Pizza.

I can't tell you how many times over the last twenty years I've had lunch there with my Mother, granddaughters, grandsons, brothers, and sister. Such great memories with everyone laughing about the garlic breath we all had afterwards and my searching for the hot red cinnamon Tic Tacs in my purse. After all, who wants to walk around with garlic breath when they're shopping. I was so disappointed I decided that California Pizza Kitchen just went to the bottom of my favorite restaurant list.

After our disappointing lunch we went shopping for some crafts supplies at both A.C. Moore and Michaels. This cheered me up as I just LOVE browsing through all the aisles and craft supplies thinking of all the things I'd like to make. And, of course, we bought a few craft supplies. Okay, make that many supplies. We probably bought more needle felt craft supplies than we needed - but, you can't pass up good deals especially when you have coupons! That's our story and we're sticking to it.

We decided to spend the next three days working on her websites, fiber products, and quilt kits. After a grueling three days of computer work we finally finished as much as we were going to do this trip so we had some time to play. We wanted to learn as much as we could about needle felting and working with roving.

I had bought two mini roving kits for making a snowman and a penguin that I thought would be a good introduction into working with the fiber so we started there. We just wanted to get the feel of the fiber and how easy or hard it would be to work with before we embarked on our free style hand creations and working with the molds we had bought. I took the snowman and my sister took the penguin.

We learned how to form the roving into balls or whatever shaped we needed and which roving tools to use as each had their own purpose. After pricking my fingers twice to the point of drawing blood we decided needle felting was not a craft for young children. The needles were really sharp and THEY HURT when you pricked yourself. OUCH! At the very least if you're needle felting with children adult supervision is definitely required.

I finished my snowman, as shown in the picture above, and my sister finished her penguin, as shown in the picture above and to the left. For her first attempt and my second attempt at needle felting roving we were pleased with the results. Two years ago I had made a winter penny rug that had sheep in it and required you to needle felt the sheep's body, but that was just felting the wool roving onto the felt piece. I didn't have to shape anything then so this was a little different. I reviewed this in my "The Book Review Corner Blog" in a post entitled: "I Really Wanted To Try Needle Felting and Penny Rug Felting - I Loved It!

My sister decided to take a bold step for her next needle felted creation and try a free style hand felted picture. She wanted some sort of mountain scene with trees, sun, mountains, grasslands and a moose. She's into nature, gardens, and quilted landscape wall art not dolls, silk floral, and genealogy.

I opted for an easier winter scene with the blue felt roving backing, a snowman with a tree and presents.  I wasn't surprised at what my baby sister choose as she was always more adventurous than I.

Well, we worked on this for several hours and between the laughter and "bleeding - OUCH! OUCH!" we managed to get several needle felted projects completed.

By the time we were done we definitely had a better feel for needle felting and knew which of the products we liked or didn't like. My sister had brought some of the white, brown, dark brown, and black/gray combination roving from her alpacas that we used in almost all of the creations. My sister's alpaca roving was clearly the best roving by far. Very fine, very soft, and very easy to needle felt.

Some of the small packages of dyed roving that we had bought might have said 100% wool roving but they were anything but. Some were roving, but some looked more like dyed raw mohair to me. I will definitely not be buying that again. However, we wanted to create needle felted pictures and to do that we needed different colors.


My sister's white alpaca roving would be wonderful for dyeing except we haven't learned how to do that yet. It's on the agenda - maybe next year.

In any event. her alpaca roving makes exceptional doll hair, especially the white for Santa's. I'm hoping to have some time this winter to create dolls and ornaments using her alpaca roving. I'm fortunate that my baby sister gave me some roving last year and this year to use with my dolls and crafts - and use it I will. It is definitely the best roving I have ever used for my doll hair.

If you'd like to see for yourself just visit her Rock Garden Alpacas Etsy Shop.

We had a delightful time as we always do.  We  worked hard, shopped, ate, laughed, cried from the pricking of the fingers, and learned A LOT.  We still have a lot more to learn about using the alpaca fiber, but we're off to a good start.

Delightful Fall Decorations

I know that I've told you a zillion times how much I love the Fall season and LOVE decorating for the Fall.

Since there's two holidays in the Fall I tend to put all my Fall seasonal scarecrows, spooky Halloween dolls, and Thanksgiving pilgrims all out at the same time. They're usually up for three months - from the end of August or first of September until just after Thanksgiving. By putting them all up at the same time I same a lot of time by not having to change them out. I blend them together so they look fine for the three months.

I also like to alternate what I put up each year for a couple of reasons. First, I have so many wonderful decorations and secondly, it gives every one of the "dollies" their 15 minutes of fame. After all, we have to keep the "dollies" happy and keep the peace in "The Dollie Storage Room."  Letting them all shine at some point in time is a way to do this.

The "dollies" have been pestering me for a few weeks now to show pictures of the decorations and, today, I finally had some time to do so.

Two of my favorite "BIG GUYS" that hubby and I made many years ago adorn the family room fireplace.

My Boo Hoo Billy and Crowin Mike ornament designs are just hanging around.  The "W" pumpkin above is a new decoration added by hubby.

My Primitive Andy Frankenstein and Primitive Annie Witch doll designs looking down from atop the desk.

The dolls and florals in the two pictures above makes my sun-room so festive. The scene in my dining room.  My Norman The Pilgrim and Pleasantly Plump Eunice pilgrim doll designs are in charge here.

The two pumpkins shown above (Trick or Treat and Boo) were also new decorations this year added by hubby!  I think they go well with the scene.

Frankenstein above is the largest wooden doll hubby and I have ever made.  My Scarier Per Pound David and Call Me Frank N. Stein doll designs keep him company.

My Scarecrow Rob and Wickedly Plump Dot  witch doll designs and silk floral arrangement make a wonderful scene in my front hall.  I made the table cloth from some fabric my sister gave me one year.

My Punky Elmer's Little Scarecrow doll design adds his own special charm to one of the scenes in the dining room.

More silk floral arrangements that I made many years ago.  I just love creating with the silk florals as they just last and last year after year after year.  Definitely a cost effective way to decoration.  Make something once to last 10 to 20 years.  How great is that?

Arch silk floral I made one year adorns the top of the fireplace in the dining room. Can't forget the Halloween cross stitch I created last year. My Andy Scarecrow doll design has his own place of honor on top of Bud's box this year.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving decorations. I know the "dollies" were happy to show off.  Hopefully that will keep them happy for a little while.