I wanted to make a keepsake gift for our coming baby and decided to design this blanket.  I bought a soft merino wool blanket and needle felted the design onto it. Needle felting is a process where wool roving (or batting) or wool yarn is attached to a wool surface, which can be a piece of felted wool or another type of wool fabric.

In this case, I first placed the roving and yarn designs in place on the blanket.  Then I used a needle felting tool to attach the designs.  This is a special tool which has several felting needles on it.  Each of these needles has tiny barbs on it’s surface.  When the needles pierce the two layers of wool, its barbs bind the two materials together.  

The effect looks almost as if the design was woven into the fabric.  It is a wonderfully fun and rewarding process, and in the end it feels much like working magic.