Needle Felting an Outline on a Hooked Rug

There is still a little to do on my otherwise completed Ali Katz rug.  That is needle felting the outlines.  It is all bound and I'm not in any hurry to do the needle felting since it actually looks okay as is ~ but I know it isn't 100% finished.

When I had my class with Ali Strebel this past September, my intentions were to hook an outline in a more narrow cut wool between the jaw line and other features of the cats OR use a darker color to show the shape. Here is a close up of the blue cat where you can see the outline of the nose, lip, etc.  I also chose to do needle felting inside the triangles as well as between the colors in the flower petals on the green cat. 

Yes, I could have chosen to use a darker wool on the blue cat as I did on the nose and jaw of the yellow zig zag cat and like on the jaw of the green cat but figured it was a class with Ali and wanted to try some of her techniques.  For the eyes, instead of hooking them I did the quillie eyes (a/k/a 'standing wool circles').

This is a photo of the dyed wool roving I used, the felting needle (just above the business card) and information on how to contact Ali Strebel of Kindred Spirits if you wish to purchase a package of 3 felting needles or wool roving.  You can see a small piece that was pulled off to needle felt a section that still needs to be needle felted.

And this is a cat I will demonstrate on where it is not felted on the left side facing you.

 As I work at the jaw I punch with my right hand as I gently twist and stretch out the fibers of the wool roving to make it thinner.  You can use as much or as little of the roving as you wish.

Below you can see how I needle felted the outline of that side of the cat.  What I have felted needs to be defined a little better but was in a hurry to get pictures and post this on my blog.



 FYI, this pattern does not need to have any needle  felting done to it all, that was my choice instead of hooking an outline.  So it's all up to you.  My friend Renia has purchased the pattern and will hook it at a rug camp next April and I sure hope she shares a picture with me when hers is done.  She may not do needle felting and hers will probably look more crisp than mine.  But hey, I'd never done that technique in a rug before and thought it would be fun.

Have a great Monday.

Saundra