Felted Slippers eBook

Our eBook on how to felt slippers is now available here on our blog (to the left) and in our Etsy shop!  Learn how to make felted slippers that may be used as nighttime slippers, indoor shoes, or outdoor boots.  A wonderful family project!

New Yarns!

Lately, we've been inspired to create soft, warm, wool yarns for handwork projects and for sale.  They work well for doll hair, knitting, crocheting, weaving and felting.  The fiber colors inspire us to spin and spin!


Auloniad (nymph of the glen)

Bohemian Fairy

Twlight Fairy

Sylph (air elemental)

Chocolate Fudge Fairy

Spinning Yarn

Pastel Rainbow Fairy Handspun Yarn

Cashmere Merino

Junkyard Fairy Yarn

Spindles, spinning wheels, drum carders, hand carders...all of these can be found around our home. Carding fiber batts and then spinning them up is a tactile, artistic experience, and a nice family project, too!

Spinning on our Majacraft Little Gem II

We learned how to spin and card years ago. We started off with a spindle/carding lesson, then Joey and Mommy attended Camp Plucky Fluff to learn more about making novelty yarns. We've done demonstrations and lessons. Mommy attended SOAR a few years back. We love collecting unusual and pretty spindles.

Camp Plucky Fluff Yarn

Some of our batts

One of our spindles

Sometimes, we participate in fiber swaps. We mail in various fibers (wool, alpaca, angelina, eco-spun, cotton, yak, angora, buffalo, tencel, bamboo, silk, soysilk...) to one person who then mixes everything up and sends us back a batch of fiber. The swap participants come from all over the world! Here is a yarn that Joey and Mommy spun up from a fiber swap. We then crocheted it into a funky hat!


Joey and Ricky have been selling their batts and yarns for a few years, now. The money that they earn goes into their college fund. Wilson just started making some batts of his own!

Joey likes to name her yarns after fairies.

Heathered Mist Fairy, Boysenberry Fairy, and Tree Fairy

Ricky names his yarns after the periodic table of elements.

Bromine Yarn, Iridium Yarn, and Neon Yarn

Felting a Wool Ball

Felting a wool ball is easy, enjoyable, and an amazing tactile experience! This week, Wilson felted a ball along with Mommy. Here is how to do it:

1. Choose 3 colors of wool fiber.

2. Card the fibers with hand carders. Keep a wispy piece set aside.

3. Roll the fibers in a ball with hands.

4. Get fibers wet and soapy, then agitate on a washboard or other bumpy surface, turning the fiber ball constantly.

5. Rinse and allow to air dry (might take a day or more).

6. Take the wispy piece of fibers that you had set aside, cover the ball, and needlefelt it onto the surface to make a smooth, continuous feel and look.

7. Roll the ball in your hands until smooth!

You can also put weights or beans or marbles in the center of the balls for weight. Another great option is to needlefelt designs onto the ball with other colors. Wool works best. Wool and needlefelting equipment may be purchased online at http://www.mielkesfarm.com/

Today, we threw Wilson's felted ball around during circle time while saying the colors of the rainbow in English and Spanish. What fun!

The Dell

dell: n. A small secluded wooded valley. A vale.

Our homelearning space is known to us as the "dell". Because we call ourselves "Syrendell", dell is a nickname of sorts. The word "dell" brings up images of a beautiful, magical, wooded vale, full of fairies, sprites and gnomes!

We love our homelearning space...small, secluded and at times, full of wood! The changing seasons are honored by hanging colorful mobiles, and attaching window stars, mosaics or snowflakes to the glass. When the weather is warm, we open the sliding glass door and paint on the deck, extending the dell into the natural world.

We create a wreath for each season. The circle is woven out of wire by Ricky. All three children decide which type of leaf or other bits of nature to include in the wreath. We gather real leaves and make patterns to use later when we cut with felt. In the winter, holly berries are needlefelting. Spring is coming soon, and we will be needlefelting tiny eggs, birds and nests starting this week.

Our "Seasonal Spot" (aka, nature table) is a shelter built by Daddy with twigs from our backyard and reclaimed wood. A wooden tree puzzle shows us the season by the color of leaves (or lack of color). Our friend Gnomy likes to hang out in the Seasonal Spot. Seasonal fairies, finger puppet children, Syrendell Sprites, acorn families or other creatures often visit. Special stones, geodes, acorns, pine cones also can be found in the Seasonal Spot.

The dell features small chalkboards, a space for featuring books and projects that relate to the stories, holidays, S.S. block or science explorations of the week. Daddy's wood puzzles, wood stove, and tree blocks are found under a table, easy to reach for everyone! Our naturally-dyed silks, handmade crowns, play cloths and wooden clothespins are available whenever the mood strikes us. A large basket, full of percussion instruments sits near the foot of the dell, by the piano, as a nice transition space to wear we have our circle time.

Each person in the family has a frame on the wall made from twigs, featuring a watercolor, drawing, or crayon exploration. Baskets of crayons, finger puppets, geometric shapes and wool fibers with a drum carder, hand carders and needlefelters can be found throughout the dell.

We love the dell and try to tidy up when we can! It's our special place to learn, love and grow....

Felting at Syrendell

We love to felt! All of us do some sort of wet or needlefelting. We use the clover 5-needle tool and we also use single needlefelting needles.

Our wax crayons have been in a basket for months, but they tend to get dinged up. Joey wet felted a nice lining for the basket out of some beautiful merino wool strips.

Lately, we've been needlefelting outfits for finger puppets. Joey has created an adorable series of finger puppets called the "Seasonal Children", featuring Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. She needlefelted some beautiful Math Gnomes with Mommy for little brother Wilson for Christmas. The gnomes sleep at night in a box with felted lining!

During Christmas, we worked on needle felting balls and turning them into ornaments!

For Valentine's day, Joey felted some small hearts out of some pink wool and sparkle angelina fibers that she carded. She added a pin to the back of each heart and then felted a piece over the pin backing to hold. These will be precious gifts for her cousins and friends from her dance classes!

We created an Acorn Family for our Seasonal Spot (aka, "nature table") by wet felting and then needlefelting clothes for the wooden finger puppets. Each family member received an acorn cup hat!

Our sweet Gnomy has boots, beard and hat, felted by Ricky and Mommy. He is often seen in our Seasonal Spot, or near a seasonal wreath.

Everyone enjoys needlefelting fruits and veggies for our little grocery store. After playing "store", we often take the bounty to the wood stove that Daddy built for Wilson for Christmas and prepare meals.

Wilson loves playing with his rainbow wood home blocks. The Acorn Family fits nicely in the house! Wilson helped Mommy felt a bowl and some tiny fruit for the table this week.

Since we love to spin and don't like to waste, all fiber scraps go into baskets. When it's time to felt, the baskets are a treasure trove of colors and textures, just waiting to become something amazing!