New to Felting? It’s a relatively easy technique to master, but choosing the right wool is the real challenge.
While shopping around, you’ll encounter a sea of woolen fibers in a variety of names, colors, and textures, making you feel a little inadequate to make a decision.
You are likely asking yourself, what is the best wool for felting? The best wool for felting is roving, tops, or batts (before the fiber is spun into yarn) derived from 100% animal fiber, specifically sheep wool like Merino, Shetland, Corriedale, etc.
This information alone is not enough to send you shopping for felting wool. Each type of wool felts differently, so you need to find what works for you. The felting technique also matters. One type of wool may be suitable for needle felting, while another is much better for wet felting.
To help you crack the wool felting code, we’ve put together this post where you can learn how to select the best wool for felting. We’ll also save you the trouble of researching and testing each brand by pointing you to the best options available in the market.
Felting Wool: What to Look For
The mere fact that a roll of fibers is wool doesn’t necessarily mean it will felt. Therefore, bearing the following factors in mind helps a great deal in making the right choice.
Fiber Content
Ensure the makeup is 100% animal fiber meant for felting. Wool laced with silk, nylon, or other fibers is generally meant for spinning and will either not felt, or do so inconsistently.
You want 100% sheep’s wool to do the job well.
Crimp
Go for wool with a good crimp; the more, the better. Crimp – which makes the wool look a bit wavy – is also what helps wool matt, so try to avoid silky straight strands.
Treatment
Unfortunately, some processes deter felting all together or make it extremely difficult.
Superwashed wool, for example, is pretreated not to shrink. The shrinking of fibers is a significant part of the felting process. Dyes and bleaches may also negatively affect the ability of wool fiber scales to rise and lock into each other.
3 Best Wools For Felting
To help you scale down to the best wool for felting, we did this round-up of the top-recommended products for the job:
| Rank | Product | Best... |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | MOMODA Wool Roving Fiber | For needle felting |
| 2. | DHG Maori Carded Wool Batt | For wet felting |
| 3. | Corriedale 100% Natural Wool Roving | All-around 100% wool |
So check them out in more detail below and happy felting!
1. MOMODA Wool Roving Fiber (50 Colors)
Best Wool for Needle Felting
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This roving wool is what you’ll call love at first sight. It is really soft, fluffy, and of good quality.
The 50 bundles come in an assortment of rich colors in individual resealable pouches; your leftover or unused wool can stay nice and clean.
Each bundle weighs 3g, which isn’t much; expect just a small roll for each color to avoid utter disappointment. Still, it is beautiful for top wool, superb in quality, color selection, and ease of use, particularly for needle felting.
It makes good practice wool for beginners, but even experienced felters can use it for miniature dolls, figurines, and animals. Or embellish large projects by adding highlights and colorful fine details.
Although the manufacturer mentions that it is wool fibers and the quality is stellar, there isn’t any information regarding where or how it is sourced and processed.
2. DHG Maori Carded Wool Batt
Best Wool for Wet Felting
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All-natural animal wool is perfect for wet felting, and the Maori wool comes from New Zealand’s finest sheep farms to you for that purpose.
This carded wool batting is harvested ethically and processed with the specific standards for felting. It is soft and easy to pull separate.
A bundle of the wool weighs 1 ounce and dyed with non-toxic Oeko-tex certified coloring. That means you get to select just your favorite colors from the vast, not to mention absolutely gorgeous, selection. You’ll be spoilt for choice.
It makes an excellent foundation for quickly wet felting structures such as bags, wall hangings, rugs, etc.
3. Corriedale 100% Natural Wool Roving
Best 100% Wool
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After the purest 100% wool, then look no further than this premium brand of Corriedale wool.
It is sourced ethically from the best sheep farms in Australia and processed in the US under strict environmental-friendly standards.
The wool is left undyed to maintain its organic look and authentic colors mocha, sand, and cream(off-white).
Each roll of roving wool weighs 8 ounces and is 90mm in staple length. That’s ample yarn for multiple projects. You can make it the core wool for your crafts if you wish but is versatile enough for needle felting and wet felting as well.
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