Making stuff 22: needle felt gonk

By large boy (the gonk, not the blog post), entirely his own design made up as he went along.

Yesterday’s advent activity was “crafts”, which drew a disappointed sigh. I’d bought a couple of kits to make a wreath and pompom gonks because I am not crafty myself. But the boys were thoroughly unimpressed. So I said large boy could get out his needle felt instead.

How to

What you need:

• Needle felting needle and block
• Pale felt, coloured felt, thread, bit of wool

Instructions

1. Take the pale felt and form it into a ball, stab it lots til it’s firm and well felted. This will be the head.
2. Form a piece of coloured felt into a long sharp triangle/cone shape and felt. This will be the hat.
3. Make two tiny balls of a different colour and felt them til firm. This will be the nose and a bobble for the hat.
4. Attach the triangle to the big ball and then the tiny ball just below the hat piece. Felt the bobble onto the tip of the hat.
5. Get mum (or do it yourself) to sew a loop of wool onto the hat and bobble join to make the hanging. Large boy found a tiny bell in his felting kit and we attached that to the bobble too.

Small boy also did some felting for the first time, didn’t stab himself and quite enjoyed making a fish. He’s annoyed that he put the mouth on upside down and so it looks cross.

Happy crafting!