Gnomes

I am rapidly becoming addicted to needle felting; it is SO much fun. I love working with wool because it's so forgiving; if I make a mistake (which I do on a regular basis), it doesn't ruin the whole piece because it's easily fixed with a little extra wool or some targeted jabs with my needle.
I wasn't sure at first if I would like felting with a needle; it seemed that it might be similar to punch needle embroidery, which I tried a couple of years ago and didn't enjoy at all. I did finish one small piece, more out of stubbornness than anything else, but I doubt I'll ever do any more punch needle unless it's just to embellish a quilt or something. Needle felting, though, is completely different. It's really amazing to watch the fibers come together, and to be able to sculpt them into different shapes.

My first gnome was more or less an accident; I was trying to make a bunny, but the body shape just looked all wrong, and when I made the head, the little tuft that I was using to hold it ended up being bigger than I'd meant for it to be, and it suddenly occurred to me that it looked very much like a gnome hat. So I stuck a big nose on the face, added red wool to the pointed hat, gave him arms and a blue jacket and brown shoes, and added a big gray beard, and voila! Gnoogle was here!

I'm now finishing up my third gnome, and hope to start my fourth tonight if I can get enough other stuff done today (I have fabric that needs to be dyed soon!). I feel as if I have a dozen or so gnomes running around inside my head screaming at me, and they won't be quiet until I felt them into being...