Wool and I have never gotten along. It makes me itch like a fiend and in fluff form gets into my eyes and nose and that really doesn't end well, so I have messed around with felting materials other than wool. I thought would share what I have found so far.

Acrylic

Pros -
- Availability, you can get acrylic yarns in just about any craft store or craft
sections of most big box stores
- Cost, acrylic yarns are inexpensive, particularly as compared to wool felting roving
- large range of colors and textures available in acrylic yarns
- can be blended using fingers,
- many yarns require minimal work to turn into fluff (such as Lion Brand Homespun
and just about anything with the word "bulky" in it)

Cons -
- requires lots and lots of stabbing,
- some yarns require breaking into its constituent strands and a carding brush to turn
into fluff

Needles - I like 3.5 inch needles, 30, 36 and 38 gauge as well as 36 and 38 gauge star needles (which only come in 3 inch

needles). I have all of these in my needle collection. I have had good luck with using a 3 needle "pen" as well as using a

single needle, depending on the situation.


Cotton

Pros -
- texture, felted cotton is very soft
- hypo-allergenic
- cotton roving, if you can get it, also felts amazingly well

Cons -
- making cotton fluff takes some time and patience (it requires a carding brush, tn order to create fluff, the cotton yarn must be broken down into separate strands, a large number of strands, from 15 or more 4 strand pieces of yarn or more)
- requires a lot of stabbing (a trick is to use a very easily felted acrylic yarn (such as Red Heart brand) also broken down into its constituent strands and mix the strands into the cotton strands before brushing into fluff.),

Needles - Felting cotton also tends to eat needles in a way that felting acrylic doesn't. I have found that more frequent stops to let the needle cool down helps a lot. Get longer needles, 30, 36 and/or 38 gauge (depending on how fine the cotton fiber is) are all good gauges and having multiple gauges is a good thing. I don't recommend star needles. I also have had better luck with a single needle than a three needle "pen".


Pet Hair

You can felt pet hair.
- Cat hair doesn't require anything to be mixed in but it is usually a good idea to put
it on a yarn core, since cats don't tend to shed enough for a solid animal.

- Dog hair varies. For example, Yellow Lab hair can be felted straight but I have
gotten better results by blending the dog hair with acrylic.

- Horse hair can be felted but needs to be mixed with wool or an acrylic wool blend.

Other useful information

For any felting project, a piece of foam and a hard surface to rest it on are both really helpful, particularly for working with non-wool materials.

Since I have a great deal of experience with building sculptures from wire by wrapping the wire on itself, I have found it easiest to make cores for felted animals by wrapping yarn like I would wire. This makes for a very dense, very stiff core. I have made felted horses that can stand up on their own.

Lately, I have been experimenting with cores made from stuffing, a mess of thread or left over yarn fluff, which create a much more cuddle-able creation. I also found putting a piece of fabric between the stuffing and the outer felted skin works well to keep things cuddly, since it stops the needle from turning the stuffing into felt. I have also used sewing felt as a break between the stuffing and the felted outer coat.

I tend to make bigger critters so making a core out of cheap yarn is a very efficient way to do things. As an example, my largest creation is an 18 inch long Night Fury with a 24 inch wing span (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16523699/). For wings, I use yarn as the core and cover with fluff. I don't recommend trying to make wings without a piece of foam bigger than the wing you are trying to make.

Felting of things other than wool can be done, when doing so experimentation is a must.