Needle-Felted Ornament

I had been dying to try needle felting, so I got a needle and some roving. Here's a blow-by-blow of my first project. (I don't count the first practice round, in which I double-poked my thumb and bled a lot.)

Below is the first step, needling some undyed roving. (You use the undyed/natural roving underneath so as not to waste the dyed roving.)


Then I covered the ball with green and kept poking.

After smoothing it some more (needling and squishing), I sketched in the star in yellow. To do this, you carefully poke some roving along the edge of your design:

Then work on poking the middle:
And filling in spots, and poking some more!:
I lined the star with variegated sock wool:
And added some lettering ("Peace") in magenta sock wool:


Then I thought the star needed some more work, so I added some white roving for highlight:


And that's it! I added a hook (right through the top of the wool) and it's ready to hang.

So here is a shot of the finished ornament in situ: