Needle Felted Waldorf King Winter Doll Tutorial

King Winter

King Winter now is in the land,
he reigns with cold and freezing hand.
He makes Jack Frost touch nose and toes,
and gives our cheeks a shining glow.
Author Unknown

King Winter stands nobly on the Nature Table in winter.  He is a mighty image that reminds us how small we are compared to the power of nature.  Feeling small in the world is something that our children feel everyday.  This is an important image to keep in mind as we care for our young friends.

Instructions on making your own King Winter:

Materials-

Wool Roving Felt in white, blue, purple and flesh tone (purchase from a knitting store)

Curly wool felt for his beard and hair

Wool batting for the inner core of the body

Wooden skewer and pipe cleaner for his staff

Felting needle

Felting foam board

Steps-

Remember-Never cut your felt, gently separate it by pulling off long strands. Place the foam board behind your felting piece so you don’t poke yourself with the sharp needle.

Form a ball from your wool batting for the head. Poke your needle into the wool in several places to make the wool fibers hold this shape.

Make a large pyramid shape for the body. Simply poke the felt with your felting needle to make the fibers of wool stick together.  The more you poke the felt with the needle the more secure and dense the felt will become.

In these instructions, ‘felting’ means to poke your needle into the wool until it forms the shape you want or attaches to another shape.

Choose a long strand of blue and wrap it around the body.  Felt it into place. Repeat until the body is covered but don’t worry about the back because it will be covered with his cloak.  Felt his head onto his body.

Next choose a small strip of white wool and fold it back onto itself to form a sausage shape.  Felt it into an arm. Repeat for the second arm.

Wrap some blue wool around the arms and felt them until secure.  Don’t bother covering the upper arm and shoulder, they won’t be visible on the finished product.

We are now going to work on his sleeve cuff and mitten.  Felt a small piece of white wool into an oval shape for his mitten and then add on his thumb. Experiment and add more wool if his mitten needs to appear thicker.  Wool is very forgiving and you can shape the mitten with your felting needle by poking around the outer edge.  If you aren’t happy with your results, gently stretch out the wool fibers and start again.

Felt his mitten onto his wrist.

Next, wrap a length of white wool around his wrist to create the cuff of his sleeve. Felt it to the edge of his blue sleeve and to the edge of his mitten. Felting along the edges will create a distinctive line and allow the sleeve cuff to remain nice and puffy.  Repeat for his other arm.

Felt his arms onto his body. He is beginning to take shape!  I decided to felt more wool onto his head at this point because his head wasn’t in proportion to his body.  Wool is wonderful because you can add more wool or felt wool down to adjust sizes as you work.

Next, use your felting needle to shape the arm into a bend elbow position. King Winter’s arm needs to hold his staff eventually.

Great! Now let’s work on his beard.  Gently separate small strands of the curly wool.  Felt them onto his face working across the head in a row.

Lift up the first row of beard to add a second row below.  This will create a full beard that will appear longer.  Keep adding rows until you achieve the length and look you desire.

Choose a flesh coloured piece of wool to felt onto the head above the beard.  Secure the wool by felting it behind the head.  This will leave the face smooth.

Once his face is secure it is time to finish his beard.  I chose two short pieces of beard wool to give him a moustache. Then I gently felted the hint of some eyes and the suggestion of a nose.

Set King Winter aside as we work on his crown.  Start with a horizontal length of blue wool that is long enough to wrap around King Winter’s head.  Add four pieces of shorter lengths of blue wool shaped into triangular points.  I shaped the blue pieces and smaller purple pieces using the same method (described below). Felt four small white wool balls to add some detail to the purple sections.

The triangular shapes are made by wrapping a short length of wool around your finger.  Twist the two ends together to form a point.  Lay the shape onto your foam board and felt the wool into a dense triangle.

Felt the purple triangles onto the blue sections. Felt the white balls onto the middle of the purple triangles.

Add a band at the bottom edge of the crown by twisting strands of blue and purple wool together.  Felt the two strands together as you twist so they don’t unravel. Felt the twisted strands onto the crown.

Attach the crown onto King Winter’s head.  Add some hair peeking out around the edge of the crown and around the back. This is a good time to felt a length of white wool onto the bottom of his body.  Felt the edge of the white wool onto the edge of the blue body so that the hem of his robe matches the cuff of his sleeve. (see finished photo at the top of this post for a visual reference)

It’s time to make his royal cloak.  Start with lengths of blue felt and fold them back onto themselves.  Felt each section together.  Make a second twisted band of blue and purple similar to the one you made for the crown.

Felt it onto the top of the cloak.  This will add a bit of detail to the collar.  Next, attach a length of white wool as the collar of the cloak. Only felt the edge of the white wool onto the twisted band.  Don’t poke down the main length of felt because this collar matches the cuffs on his sleeves.  They should appear full and thick.

Add a band of white wool around the entire cloak to finish the edge.  Secure it by felting the white edge to the blue edge.  This will leave it looking thick.

Choose some strands of purple wool and felt them vertically down the cloak.  This will fill in the blue wool and add detail to his cloak.

Attach the cloak to King Winter by felting it around his shoulders and the back of his neck.

Felt the cloak onto his back in places to secure it.  The cloak gives King Winter extra stability so he can stand up on his own.

Make a staff by winding a pipe cleaner around a wooden skewer.  Then wind purple wool around the pipe cleaner.  The wooden skewer provides the length for the staff and the pipe cleaner gives the wool something to stick to.  Felt a white wool oval shape on the top and add a purple band for detail. Felt the staff to his mitten.

Congratulations you made your own King Winter!  I’m sure he looks amazing and will add a regal air to your winter nature table.  The children will be delighted tomorrow when they see him!