Prehistoric times

Possibly felting was discovered in prehistoric times, when man sat with his sweaty feet on a piece of fur in his dark, damp cave. Over time the fur became felt.
I am sure there are other stories to explain the discovery of felt.
There are also different types of felt.
Commercial felt, which is type we buy in shops. It is made by large machines that have thousands of barbed needles in them. The fibre is fed into these machines and meshed together by the needles and at the end commercial felt comes out.
Some clever person has realised that if you take some of those barbed needles you can use them individually. Needlefelting is a fabulous technique for meshing wool together using one or a few felting needles. This technique is great for making three dimensional sculptures, and for placing fibre exactly as you want it before wet felting.
I love needlefelting. I like to take my children's little figurines and recreate them in felt. I have made, Nemo, SpongeBob, a koala and a panda. Oh, and mermaids. Love mermaids.
Corriedale is the best wool for needlefelting. It is slightly coarser than merino and meshes together faster. You must watch, carefully, what you are doing as it can be quite unpleasant to stab yourself with those barbed needles.
If anyone wants to try needlefelting, I have all the supplies, please check my Etsy shop,