Noah's Mittens: A Boatload of Fun

Noah’s Mittens
​by Lise Lunge-Larsen.  Illustrated by Matthew Trueman

Today we were searching the house for a toy, and from under the couch we unearthed a forgotten library book titled “Noah’s Mittens.”  This turned out to be a fantastical tale of Noah discovering felt on the ark, when the animals get tossed around in the rain and the sheep felt themselves.  Strange, but with appealing illustrations.
The last page of the book contained a historical blurb about felt.  Who knew that archeologists have discovered 8,000 year old felt objects in Turkey or that the Chinese used to make armour out of felt thousands of years ago?  Who knew there where sheep living in China thousands of years ago?

After reading the book twice, I was inspired to find the wool I’d ordered a couple months back and try to make felt.   An hour and lot of hot soapy water later, we had two beads, a snake, and a bracelet.   We discovered that making wool isn’t as quick and easy as it sounded in the book, though it was a wonderful sensory experience.   Very calming.
After trying out the wet woolmaking, we gave the dry felting technique a spin.  We discovered it was easier to make flat designs with the felting needle, but that it really, really, really hurt when you accidentally stabbed yourself with it.  The needle has tiny barbs and is three inches long, so you can imagine how it felt.  (pun intended).