Designed by a needle felter for needle felting.

My name is Kay Petal. This story began in January, 2007. It was a dark and stormy night 🙂 in the middle of a cold Alaskan winter and I was longing for a new creative outlet.

During my creative quest, I stumbled across the most adorable wool dolls by artist Andrea Graham. I had never heard of this craft called needle felting so off I went to my local fiber arts store. I found a book — NEW FELT by Danish feltmaker Birgitte Krag Hansen, who I still consider the Queen of needle felting to this day.

Off I went with my new book and bags full of goodies and laid it all out on my kitchen table. The instant my first felting needle poked into the wool I felt a burning desire to conquer this craft and share it with the world. I needle felted every chance I got and I thought about needle felting when I wasn’t needle felting. Obsessed is the correct term, I believe.

I kept felting, working on an old upholstery cushion and using basic, paint-coded felting needles. I was breaking my needles at breakneck speed and I kept stabbing my fingers. Watching the wool take shape from fluff to form was really something magical so I kept poking.

Then fate stepped in: Birgitte was traveling from Denmark to Alaska to hold workshops. I brought along some of my creations. She took one look and told me that I was killing the wool. I was felting all the life out of it. She showed me I didn’t need wire armatures, that lofty short-fibered batting felted faster, and that I only needed three types of felting needles — fine, medium and coarse (now my yellow, red and black color-coded needles.)

By the fall of 2008 I entered my work in the Alaska State Fair. My first caricature — Einstein — took Best in Show of the entire Fleece and Fiber Art division. All day at my demo, people kept asking me if I was Einstein’s mom!

When I first got started, I just knew needle felting would get very popular and many people were going to want to learn how. I wasn’t wrong. We produced instructional needle felting videos long before the internet was loaded with them. We color-coded the felting needles to accompany the videos. It really is true that if you put a little good into this world, you get so much in return.