Title – Wool Buddies
Author – Jackie Huang
Publisher – Chronicle Books
ISBN – 978-1-4521-1440-8
I spotted this book, Wool Buddies, in a local bookshop, on sale, and really could not leave it there. I enjoy a spot of needle felting now and then and love the cute characters in this book. Very inspiring.
The book is about 8.5″ x 9″ (20cm x 22cm) with a sturdy hard cover.
How to do it
The first section covers the basics of needle felting including the materials and tools required. The then follows step-by-step colour instructions to make basic shapes.
Needle felting is pretty simple to get started in so I am pretty sure that even a total beginner would be able to follow this and start making the little animals.
The wooly little critters
The creatures themselves are divided into three section, Simple, Moderate and Challenging so there is something for all skill levels. There is a total of 20 animals but many could be converted into other species.
The “simple” animals are a rabbit, penguin, owl, frog, seal, pig, guinea pig and starfish. The instructions are very clear and include how much of each colour of roving you will require and each stage of construction.
“Moderate” level animals are a sheep, wolf, fox, dog, elephant, zebra and shark. All the creatures are really cute and full of character. It would also be very easy to customize your animals with different colours and altering elements of the design.
The “Challenging” woolbuddies are particularly adorable. Here we have a giraffe, tiger, octopus, alligator and teddy bear. Despite being called “challenging” these designs are still clearly described and I doubt a crafter would need very much needle felting experience to be able to tackle them.
After making a few of these adorable characters one could easily use the basic designs as a basis for other creatures. Mr Binks the pig could be converted into a Piggy from Angry Birds, Stripe the Zebra would become an adorable donkey if made in grey roving.
Summary of Wool Buddies
This is a charming book and very enjoyable to flick through (even if you never make any of the animals!). It has good solid information and instructions for newer needle felters and lots of inspiration for the more experienced crafters.
These links lead to the item on Amazon.com (left) and Amazon.co.uk (right) . If you purchase from these links I wukk get a small commission from Amazon for sending custom their way.