At last, the felting process begins. Auntie wets the whole piece of fabric and the patterns on it with soapy water. Then she climbs onto the fabric on her hands and knees, and starts making circling motions with her fingers. Eventually, her whole palm gets involved. Auntie adds soapy water and the fabric bubbles under her fingers. That’s how the patterns stick to the fabric. Next, Auntie wraps the fabric inside a bamboo curtain and starts rolling it back and forth on the floor. It’s a bit like she’s making a gigantic red sushi roll. Water and lather drizzle onto the floor through the bamboo sticks, and Auntie Annu crawls among the mess. Every now and then, she opens the roll, checks what the fabric looks like, fixes a strip that’s come loose and carries on rolling. The big, soft wisps have now become thin stripes, and the woollen clouds have turned into lumpy patches.

At last, the rolling stops. Auntie opens the bamboo curtain and takes out the fabric. It has shrunk and become patterned. Auntie spreads the fabric over the table, stands up and assesses it.

‘It needs more…’ Auntie mutters, going to get more wisps. She arranges more colours in a couple of places, rubs them with her finger to make them stick, stands up again, looks.

Then Auntie takes off her shirt and trousers. She looks at me as if she’s just remembered I’m in the room with her. She’s wearing a black bra. A small tattooed lizard’s head peeks out from under the edge. When I was little, I always wanted to open Auntie’s shirt buttons and tickle the lizard.

‘There’s going to be some splashing,’ Auntie Annu warns.

I’m not worried. This is the best bit about felting.

Auntie pours more soapy water out of the bucket, grabs a corner of the fabric and starts thumping and throwing it along the tiled floor. She lifts the wet fabric and smacks it down, again and again. The soapy water flies all over the walls, and even my face gets wet. The thumping is called ‘frightening the fibres’. When the fibres get frightened, they become fluffy and matted. That way, the fabric tightens and becomes thick.

Lifting a large piece of wet woollen fabric is hard work. Auntie sweats, dances round the room with the fabric, water splashing.