Four years ago my love of crafts expanded even more when my sister and her husband became alpaca farmers and started Rock Garden Alpacas. At the time neither they nor I had no idea what a big impact that would have on my art doll making and craft designs.  

With the alpacas came Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber for selling all their alpaca fiber products, including roving, raw fiber, carded batts, handspun yarn, hand dyed roving, doll hair fibers, knit scarves, and handmade Nuno felted scarves. With this came my desire to create needle felted art dolls and other crafts using their products.

My sister and I were looking for ways to show her customers how to use her products when the idea for needle felted dolls and other crafts came into being. Hmmm... Lets do needle felted art dolls. Hmmm... Let's do some floral pictures... Hmmm... Now why would I think of both of those? Hmmm....


My sister gave me several large (make that HUGE) bags of roving and several carded batts (which I loved) from her alpacas Sunflower, Ivy, Cosmo, Zinnia and Masquerade which I used to make my needle felted art dolls and flower pictures, like those shown in the two picture collages above.   I loved working with the natural alpaca roving and carded batts - especially Masquerade's gray fiber batts. It was fabulous for crafting everything.

I fell in love with needle felting four years ago and decided to create free e-patterns, tutorials, e-books and how-to's for my needle felted floral pictures so you could try needle felting too.  I hope you fall in love with it as much as I did.

Just click on the links below for the needle felted craft pictures below that you'd like to try:







For more information on all my free e-patterns, e-printables and e-books please CLICK HERE.

I learned how to knit as a young child. One year I decided to knit these really big Christmas stockings with different colors and images and gave them to my family for Christmas presents. Every one loved them - especially the kids as they held a lot of presents. Unfortunately that was so long ago we no longer have those stockings and, I, foolishly never took a picture.

What I do remember, however, is thoroughly enjoying knitting. I haven't done it for many, many years and would love to find some time to do so as I keep adding pins to my Pinterest knitting board that look like wonderful knitted projects to try.

I've already pinned over 250 pins to my knitting board - all of which I want to try.  I know how to knit so that should be no problem and have always wanted to try those really big knitting needles they have today.

If you would like to learn how to knit hopefully these tutorials, video's and how-to's will be helpful.

If you love my Knitting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above..


I've got close to 700 amazing crochet tutorials on my crocheting board all of which I'd love to try.  Of course, I'll never be able to do all of them.  First and foremost I would need to learn how to crochet. It's one craft that I could never master as a kid.  Maybe now I'll be able to.

Hopefully when I finally have a chance to learn how to crochet and crochet something some of the how-to's and pins will come in handy.

If you love my Crocheting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.


It should come as no surprise that I also love amigurumi as it basically involves knitting or crocheting little animals and dolls.  Truth be told it's the adorable little crocheted amigurumi animals that are the real impetuous for my learning crochet.  I'm determined to master this as I just have to make some of these adorable creatures.  With close to 250 pins on my Amigurumi Pinterest board I'd better get started.

If you love amigurumi or want to learn how to do this hopefully these tutorials, video's, patterns and how-to's will be helpful.

If you love my Amigurumi Tutorials, Video's, Patterns & How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

For sure when and if I do start to knit and finally learn how to crochet I'm going to need some of my sister's Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber handspun yarn.  That is, if I can convince her to give me some of it. Wink! Wink! Oh, baby sister - I hope you're reading this post.....

Four years ago my sister and her husband became alpaca farmers and started Rock Garden Alpacas. Two years later they started Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber for selling all their alpaca fiber products, including roving, raw fiber, carded batts, handspun yarn, hand dyed roving, and doll hair fibers.

My sister had given me several large (make that HUGE) bags of roving and several carded batts (which I loved) from her alpacas Sunflower, Ivy, Cosmo, Zinnia and Masquerade which I used to make my needle felted art dolls, like those shown in the picture collage above.   I loved working with the natural alpaca roving and carded batts - especially Masquerade's gray fiber batts.  It was fabulous for making the needle felted dolls.

Several years ago I was visiting my sister and learned how to card batts and dye roving.  It was a lot of fun and I came home with some wonderful carded batts and lots of bright and cheery dyed roving packs. I had Fall combination colors, beautiful blues and purples, Christmas colors and so much more.

Two years ago my sister started spinning her alpaca roving into yarn.  She subsequently learned how to hand dye her yarn and utilize several methods for plying it.  Last year she sent me a surprise package in the mail that contained some of her handspun alpaca yarn.  I was thrilled and put this to good use with some of my mixed media art dolls - especially the witches. I've used her raw alpaca fiber, alpaca roving (natural and hand dyed) and handspun alpaca yarn for some of my dolls hair and have to tell you it's just wonderful.

I keep looking for various ways to use her alpaca fiber products and have to tell you that the possibilities seem endless. I had so many little sticky notes for this project or that project or this method or that method that I'd like to try or thought she might try that it was getting a little unwieldy. So, I decided to set up Pinterest boards to handle all the pins. So now I have three wonderful Pinterest boards instead of thousands of yellow sticky's everywhere.


I have a spinning, carding, batts, roving and making felt tutorials, video's and how-to's board. I'm hoping that when my sister finally teaches me how to do this all these tutorials will come in handy.

If you love my Spinning Tutorials & Carding, Batts, Roving & Making Felt Tutorials, Video's and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.


I have a dyeing fabric, yarn, wool, alpaca, ribbon & threads tutorials, video's and how-to's board. I love visiting that board just to see all the wonderful colors of the yarns and roving and some of the methods are very intriguing.

If you love my Dyeing Fabric Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.


And, I have a weaving & loom tutorials, video's, patterns, and how-to's board. Hopefully, this will come in handy as well.

If you love my Weaving & Loom Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.

I also set-up three other Pinterest boards - Amigurumi, Crochet, and Knitting.  I've already pinned over 250 pins to my knitting board - all of which I want to try.  I know how to knit so that should be no problem and have always wanted to try those really big knitting needles they have today.

I've got close to 700 amazing crochet tutorials on my crocheting board all of which I'd love to try.  Of course, I'll never be able to do all of them.  First and foremost I would need to learn how to crochet. Hopefully when I finally have a chance to crochet something some of the how-to's and pins will come in handy.

It should come as no surprise that I also love amigurumi as it basically involves knitting or crocheting little animals and dolls.  Truth be told it's the adorable little crocheted amigurumi animals that are the real impetuous for my learning crochet.

Four years ago my love of crafts expanded even more when my sister and her husband became alpaca farmers and started Rock Garden Alpacas. At the time neither they nor I had no idea what a big impact that would have on my art doll making and craft designs.  

With the alpacas came Rock Garden Alpacas Fiber for selling all their alpaca fiber products, including roving, raw fiber, carded batts, handspun yarn, hand dyed roving, doll hair fibers, knit scarves, and handmade nuno felted scarves. With this came my desire to create needle felted art dolls and other crafts using their products.

My sister and I began our needle felting and roving crafting adventures in October 2012 during my sister's visit.  Over the years we've dabbled a little learning needle felting and creating and dyeing roving.  My sister has also learned how to spin and dye her own yarn.

While we were learning I decided to write a few posts and how-to's.  I hope you enjoy them.

For more information on all my free e-patterns, e-printables and e-books please CLICK HERE.

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Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.

If you're a reader of my Linda's Blog you know how much I love pine-cones and decorating for the Christmas holidays with pine-cone trees and pine-cone baskets. Well, when my sister told me she thought wrapping her roving around magnolia pods and decorating them would make a wonderful Christmas ornament for her Rock Garden Alpacas Farm Store I had to ask what magnolia pods were. So she showed me during my last visit. I loved them.

Well, given my sister and I are never quite done with tweaking our creations she kept working on her magnolia pod ornaments until she had them just the way she liked them. She decided to add Angelina fibers, yarn, some dried berries, dried floral, silk floral and wire ribbon bows to them and the results, shown in the collage above and the pictures below, are just beautiful, I absolutely love them and think they make for adorable Christmas woodland ornaments. I hope you would agree.





All of the magnolia pods shown above are available in her Rock Garden Alpacas Farm Store.  

When my sister came to visit last year one of our objectives was to learn as much as we could about needle felting and working with roving.

I had bought two mini roving kits from Dimensions. One Dimensions Needlecrafts Needle Felted Character Kit, Snowman for making a snowman (shown above) and Dimensions Needlecrafts Needle Felted Character Kit, Penguin for making a penguin (also shown above) that I thought would be a good introduction into working with the fiber so we started there.

We just wanted to get the feel of the fiber and how easy or hard it would be to work with before we embarked on our free style hand creations and working with the molds we had bought. I took the snowman and my sister took the penguin.

The snowman was a no felting mold necessary kit that came with the wool roving (white, black, orange, and blue), felting needle, felting mat, embroidery needle, thread and step-by-step instructions.  It called for twigs for arms which were not included.

The instructions were easy to follow and warned that the single felting needle was sharp, which it certainly was as evidenced by the two photo's below where it actually drew blood on my finger.  This is definitely not a kit or craft for small children.  The needles are just to sharp and when you prick yourself it really hurts.

Basically, the idea was to form three felted balls for the snowman and felt the three balls together.  To felt the balls you rolled the white roving into a small ball using the guide they provided for their size and kept inserting the single felting needle into the ball until it was firm, round and the size required.  This is accomplished by holding the roving in your fingers and inserting the single felting needle into the roving while trying not to prick yourself or inserting the roving into the felting while rolling the ball on the enclosed foam board.  Again, the objective is to not prick your fingers which is easier said than done.


To felt the balls together you keep inserting the single felting needle through the top ball into the ball below it until the roving is felted together and will not pull apart. It's quite amazing how strong the roving gets and how well weaved it is when you've done this.


The next step was to form the orange carrot nose using the roving provided and trying not to prick yourself. I ended up creating several noses before I got one small enough to fit my snowman's head. Then you position the nose on the face and using the single felting needle gently felt the nose into the white roving of the head.

After this they wanted you to thread the needle and embroidery floss to create the snowman's eyes and mouth. I opted instead to roll tiny balls of the black roving and then gently needle felt them into the head for his eyes and mouth. I thought this would look better than the thread.

Next they wanted you to roll the black felt between your fingers to create two tiny buttons for his chest and then needle felt them into the middle ball. I created three black balls for this and needle felted two into the middle ball for his chest and one in the center of the bottom ball.


The blue ear muffs came next. Again, you rolled the blue roving into a small ball the size shown on the snowman pattern and needle felted them until they were firm. I pricked my fingers several times doing this.

Once they were firm the instructions were to needle felt them into the sides of the head for the ear muffs.


Following this the instructions called for using the enclosed embroidery floss to create the ear muffs band.  I opted instead to roll and needle felt the blue roving until I got a flat band that was long enough for the band. Then I gently needle felted the ends of the band into the top sides of the ear muffs that I had already felted onto his head.

The pattern suggested using twigs for the arms and gluing them to the sides for arms. I opted to use small cinnamon sticks for my snowman's arms and glued them into the sides for arms.


I was pleased with how my needle felted snowman came out.  It didn't look exactly like the Dimensions picture, but it looked good none the less and I was happy with it.


Both my sister and I felt that the two Dimensions kits were a good introduction into needle felting, getting used to using the needle, and working with roving. Everything came with the kit so there was no need to buy anything else just to give needle felting a try.

As mentioned, my sister needle felted the penguin from the Dimensions Needlecrafts Needle Felted Character Kit, Penguin (also shown above) so she'll have to blog about her experience with that.

If you get a chance please check out my sister's Rock Garden Alpacas Etsy Shop where she sells her alpaca fiber and handmade alpaca fiber products.

Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh.. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.