Traditionally, village women of Central Asia gathered to felt rugs together. After laying out the fibers, they would roll up the length and rock it back and forth with their collective forearms.

The final process involved attaching the rolled up bundle to the back of a horse who dragged it around the village. The agitation caused the fibers to fuse into a woolen mass.

I tried to reproduce this process with a sheet of bubble wrap and a broomstick.