If you think felt is just that bold-colored acrylic material that kindergarteners cut with safety scissors, you're missing the latest major arts and crafts trend.

Felt, which is believed to go back as far as 6500 B.C., originally was not acrylic. It was a durable, fuzzy textile made of wool and other natural animal fibers. It is thought to be the first textile humans ever made because it is so simple: just get wool wet and agitate it. If you've ever irreversibly shrunk a wool sweater in the washing machine, you're already familiar with the process.

Yet somehow felt-making was widely unknown in the United States for many years.

Anne Einset Vickrey, author of "The Art of Feltmaking," said she learned to make felt about 25 years ago from a woman in Denmark. When she displayed her felted creations at trade shows, people didn't understand it, she said. Some people accused her of using glue to stick the wool together.

"When I started, nobody knew what (felt) was," Vickrey said.

Then in the late 1990s, felting was rediscovered. Fiber artists began experimenting and sharing their techniques. Books were published. Yarn shops started offering workshops. Crafters developed a variation called needle felting, which is a type of felting developed in the 1980s based on the industrial machines that make commercial felt for pianos and tennis balls.

"It just keeps going," Vickrey said. "I can't see the end of it."

The latest trend seems to be needle felting on quilts, Vickrey said. Quilters use special barbed needles to affix decorative wool to the surface of their quilts. This can be done by hand or by using needle-felting machines that look like sewing machines.

Vickrey set up a booth for her felting equipment and fleece recently at a five-day quilt show and sold out of everything in a day and a half.

"One woman wanted to make something to look like smoke," Vickrey said. "It's just a whole new way of doing surface design that doesn't look like anything else."

Perhaps one of the reasons felting is so popular is that it is simple enough for a child to do, but it can also be an expressive medium for art.

Artist Nicole Chazaud Telaad of Alstead, N.H., for example, makes custom chairs and furniture upholstered in felt. Her felt wall hangings, rugs and throws sell for $400 to $10,000.

Methuen teen Jenna Kish is not at that level yet, but her needle felting creations have won awards at the Topsfield and Deerfield fairs.

Kish, a 15-year-old home-schooled student, said she learned to needle felt at a workshop at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival.

"I was hooked," she said. "It's really cool. There's a needle and it has barbs on it. It catches the strands of fiber. Felting is just tangling the fiber, really."

Kish likes to make three-dimensional animals and people, but they are not toys.

"I'd be afraid some of the pieces would fall off," she said.

They are pieces of art.

"I like to try to make them as realistic as possible," she said.

Yet even beginner projects can be attractive and satisfying, said Caroline Owens, who teaches feltmaking classes for families at Owens Farm in Pelham, N.H.

Children pick up felting very quickly, she said, especially when they felt unspun fleece and don't have to learn to knit first.

"There are really cute things that kids can do and it's not elaborate," Owens said.

Vickrey said she has done simple wet felting projects with 2-year-olds, making the little beads. Most of the kits she sells are geared toward children. It's a little more involved than construction paper and glitter crafts, she said, but it's also more rewarding.

"It has qualities of working with natural fibers and it's like a magic thing that's happening," Vickrey said. "All of a sudden you have felt. ... People just get hooked right into it."

For people who already know how to knit, felting can make basic knitting look sophisticated. All you have to do is shrink it in the washing machine.

"Felting is very popular because it's an instant gratification project and you don't have to be perfect at knitting," said Susan Deyermond, owner of Knit Pickings, a Plaistow, N.H., yarn shop. "It's a great thing for a person who's beginning because it hides all your mistakes."

Deyermond said she likes felting so much that she is setting up a washing machine right in the store.

"We do a lot of felting here," Deyermond said. "Felting bags are really big right now."

Knitters also use felting to make rugs, hats, slippers, clogs and mittens. Felting makes the knit materials stronger and water resistant, she said, and that makes it a great material for outdoor winter wear.

Owens said she has seen feltmaking grow in popularity at her sheep farm in recent years, and she expects the trend to continue as more people try felting for the first time.

"It think this has staying power," Owens said. "If you really look, it's been around for a long time. It just kind of went to sleep for a while. It really has that instant gratification that people can learn it very quickly and it doesn't cost a lot of money and it's fun for the kids and adults, too."

Three ways to make felt

Felting is any process that irreversibly tangles loose animal fur, like a sheep's wool, into a matted piece of fabric. Felting is sometimes followed by fulling, a process in which the fabric shrinks and grows stronger.

There are three different ways to tangle fibers into felt. Each yields different results and has different purposes.

Wet felting

For making felted flowers, beads, animals, bowls, boxes, bags, wall decorations. Wet felting makes a stiff fabric that holds its shape and can be cut with scissors.

The basics: Start with commercially prepared wool roving (a soft rope of unspun wool with the fibers combed in the same direction). Pour hot, soapy water on the wool and rub gently with your hands. After a few minutes, you can feel the fibers tangle. Continue rubbing until the wool shrinks. The longer you rub, the more durable the fabric.

Ideas:

* Start simple by wetting a little tuft of wool and rolling it in your hands until it becomes a hard bead, then string them together to make a necklace.

* Try making a flat sheet of felt by stacking thin layers of fiber on top of each other, alternating the direction of the fiber. How many layers you stack determines the thickness of the final product. Cut the finished felt and glue it around the cover of a photo album.

* Wrap some wool roving around a wooden egg (commonly sold at craft stores), wet it and rub it until it shrinks to the egg, then cut it around the middle and decorate as a cup-shaped flower blossom. Wrap wool roving around a wooden cube, felt it and cut it open to make a box.

Fulling a knit item

For making bags, hats, mittens, rugs, slippers, clogs. Fabrics can be lightly fulled just to make them fuzzy or heavily fulled to make them stiff and durable.

The basics: Start with yarn that is 100 percent wool (not "superwash") or 85 percent wool/15 percent mohair. Knit loosely with big needles, typically size 10.5 or 11 for worsted weight yarn. Put the knit piece in a zippered pillow case (if you skip this step, you can clog up your washing machine with fiber). Wash it in a top-loading washing machine in hot water with lots of agitation. After several minutes it will shrink into a stiff, thick fabric. Keep agitating until it shrinks to the right size or until you can no longer see individual stitches.

Ideas:

* To make a pot holder, cast on about 30 stitches. Knit each row until you have about six to eight inches from the cast on edge. Bind off and put it in a zipped pillow case in the washing machine on the hot cycle.

* Follow a knitting pattern for a bag or mittens, then make felted flowers to sew on for decoration.

Needle felting

For making: Three-dimensional faces, animals and people, or for creating two-dimensional designs on fabric, quilts or wet felted wool items.

The basics: Start with unspun wool roving. Lay it on a piece of foam for protection, then poke repeatedly with special, ultra-sharp barbed needles. After several minutes the fibers will become mechanically tangled and the wool gets stiff. There is no fulling involved, so the fabric does not shrink.

Ideas:

* To make decorative wall art, start with a sheet of felt made by one of the wet felting or fulling methods, then use needle felting to attach puffy clouds, trees, a house, a sunshine, stars or whatever you like. Use needles to tack down some curls of unprocessed fleece to make pictures of sheep with real wool.

* Needle felt colorful fleece onto a quilt for a soft, textured effect.

Sources: Caroline Owens of Owens Farm and Susan Deyermond of Knit Pickings.

Felt facts

* Felt is an ancient textile, dating back at least 5,000 years. People made felt long before weaving and knitting were invented.

* Mongolian nomads made yurts, their circular tents, out of felt.

* Only animal fibers felt naturally. Felt is typically made out of sheep's wool, but it can also be made out of angora rabbit fur, alpaca fur, goat fur (mohair) and beaver fur. Silk, plant fibers (cotton and linen) and synthetic fibers (nylon and polyester) do not felt. Also, some breeds of sheep produce wool that does not felt.

Source: Author Anne Einset Vickrey and her Web site, FeltCrafts.com

Resources

As popular as felting is, the materials are hard to find. Yarn for fulling is the most readily available. Local independent yarn shops have a wide selection of felt-friendly wool yarns, as well as expertise and workshops. For the other types of felting, here are some places to look:

New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival - Dozens of local farms and small businesses sell felt-ready fleece at this annual festival, which takes place May 12 and 13 this year at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds in Contookook. There are also felting workshops for adults and children. Go to yankeeshepherd.org for details.

Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair - Similar to the New Hampshire festival, this festival features dozens of booths selling fleece that can be used for felting. Workshops include needle-felting a flower pin and felting a small treasure bag (forming felt over a rock). See masheepwool.org.

Owens Farm - This Pelham, N.H., farm is known for its annual sheep camp, but owner Caroline Owens also teaches one-day feltmaking classes. This season's workshops include felt flowers, a felted photo album, a felted treasure pouch and a felted wall hanging. Go to owensfarm.com or call 603-635-8553 for the schedule.

FeltCrafts.com - This store is run by Anne Einset Vickrey, author of "The Art of Feltmaking." Vickrey assembles and sells felting kits for kid-friendly projects, including baby animals, flower fairies, Earth balls and angel fish. She also sells machinery for serious feltmakers, including rolling machines for wet felting and attachments to transform an old sewing machine into a needle felting machine.

Northeast Feltmakers Guild - This organization holds regional meetings and hosts a Web-based feltmakers forum. Some of the members also hold workshops and sell felting supplies. Find out more at NortheastFeltmakersGuild.org.

Northern Essex Community College - The college is offering a new non-credit course called "Felting 101." It is a three-week course on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. starting March 21 in Methuen. The instructor, Kathie Howe, will lead the class in knitting or crocheting a small purse to felt, as well as a small square that can be cut to make a flower to adorn the purse or to be worn as a pin. The cost is $60. Call 978-556-3700 to register.