Felted Soap?

This is supposed to be a bar of lovely felted soap.  And it is really a bar of felted soap, but it’s not quite a lovely as I’d envisioned it would be.  Far from it, in fact.  And it’s “sweater” is loose.

I used a piece of this Cottswold fleece to do my felting.  I cleaned it myself and discovered later (after watching a you tube video) that my water wasn’t hot enough and I agitated it too much.  I didn’t ruin the fleece though, luckily.  

I didn’t quite get it as clean as I had hoped, but it smells nice now and isn’t greasy so it’s at least better.  And when I felted the soap I created quite a lather which helped clean it even more.

I’m wondering what is the very best type of wool to work with for nice, tight, soft felting?  My felted bar isn’t all that soft, but for someone who wants a little more abrasion in their shower, it’s probably just right.  It didn’t seem to want to get tight though.  Maybe my felting water wasn’t hot enough?  It wasn’t steaming, more like extra warm.  And then the cold water was not icy.  Should there be a larger variation in the temperatures between the bowls of water?

Well, besides the bar of felted soap I tried to make last night, I also got some floral soaps done.  Lilac and Violet were made last night and turned out just wonderful.  I can smell them all over the house.  I didn’t think I’d like them at all, but they are so strangely familiar and bring back memories of something, I just can’t quite figure out what yet…:)  I also made vanilla sandalwood and it is also very nice.  They should be ready, after curing under fans upstairs, in a couple of weeks.  I will probably have them naked at the craft fair this weekend which will take place at the Campbell County Rescue Squad on 155 Rainbow Forest Drive, Lynchburg, Va. 24502.

And that’s about it!