My cats love my yarn, and wool, and needles, and really anything having to do with fiber. So they especially love when I make them something with wool they are actually allowed to play with. And clearly I'm on a felting kick this week- snowmen and snowflakes yesterday and I have to tell you there will be at least one more felted project in the works this week. So yesterday while picking up a pile of cat toys some of became my latest victims wool smothering.
To make the cat toy you'll need one of those plastic balls with a bell inside, some cat nip (this is optional, I used it but the wool alone is certainly enough to drive my cats crazy), a small handful of wool, and an old bit of a nylon.
Step one is laying out your wool- I like to put it down in different directions so it's sort if a woven stack.
Place your jingle ball in the center and add some catnip to the inside of the ball.
Next wrap the entire thing into a ball- being careful to cover all of the plastic.
Once you have it covered it goes into the stocking.
Now it's ready to wet felt.
Put a little dab of dish washing soap on the nylon and pass the ball under very hot faucet water for a second. You really only need a tiny bit of soap I usually put a dot on and then wipe half of that dot off. And you don't want the ball soaked just wet.
Now roll this ball around in your hands for about 10 minutes. I roll it pretty fast you so the friction of the nylon against the wool can do it's job and felt the wool. Just roll at your own pace until it's felted.
If the ball starts to feel to dry or not soapy enough add more water and another dab of soap.
When your finished the very last thing to do is roll the nylon ball in a bit of paper towel to help get the excess water out. (Only do this if your like me and have the cheap coarse paper towels in the house- if you have the nice fluffy soft ones use a tea towel instead or you'll get bits of white paper in your nylon and on your felt ball.)
Once your done this is what you end up with.
And if I could get a non blurry picture of my cats playing with it I'd show you how much they love it... this is the best I could do. (The cat toy is between Jinx's front paws).
This looks like a great tutorial, thanks! We bought a dozen or so of these several years ago, and our cats just adore them. But we're down to our last couple (and they're pretty ratty looking anymore) and I can't find them for sale anywhere. I will be trying to make my own very soon.
ReplyDeleteWe got some in riteaid earlier this year, and yeah, our cat gos nuts for them too!
ReplyDeleteHave never heard of felt-ing before, so thanks for teaching me something new today. My baby is going to love this!
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ReplyDeleteI made a similar one with a foam ball and felting. But my cat destroys it in seconds. Trying to figure out a better way for it to withstand more than 5 minutes of playtime.
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