Thimbles, gloves and other protective craft gear retail for anywhere from 5-30+ USD. We don't use protective gear in our videos, but we've poked ourselves enough times to recommend it for anyone fearful of felting needles!

Mindfully keep your free hand as far away from your needle-felting hand as possible. Consider holding the felting pad instead of the piece if the piece does not need to be held in shape while you work. Of course, sometimes the work-in-progress DOES need to be held with your free hand while you poke at it, so keep reading.

If you've ever learned kitchen knife safety, you'll practice curling your fingers while you hold vegetables in one hand and chop them with the other. If you need to hold the piece while you work on it, try to curl your fingers to keep them safer from the poking needle.

If you can't keep your free hand far away or curl your fingers, poke between your fingers with extreme care, keeping them far apart. It's also recommended to poke away from or perpendicular to your free hand - never directly towards your free hand!

To ensure the needle does not break, make sure to poke and retract the needle at the same angle, straight in and out. If you change the angle of the needle while it is inserted in the piece, it is likely to break off when you retract it. Then, the end of the needle will be stuck in your piece! As a best practice, if you need to felt the piece from several directions, rotate the piece between pokes, only rotating when you have retracted the needle.