Has Anybody Tried Felting??

[pattymac]

I've done a little bit with my sister before we moved west and would love to try doing more.

One day my sister brought over a wool scarf she knit to felt. We had a top-loading washer and hers is a front loader, not so good for felting. Really, really neat. She's also done some wet felting which is really pretty and seems pretty easy.

[BenMax]

What is that Pattymac?

[pattymac]

Basically it's kinda like the felt you buy in craft stores except way way nicer. That's caca stuff.

What you do, is you take something knit or crocheted out of wool, make it a bit bigger and throw it in the washer with hot water and a bit of detergent. It will felt and get very nice and soft. Because it shrinks, you need to make it larger than usual. Then you put it in the dryer. I've been tempted to try that with mittens as I find when they're just knit, they're not very wam but felting them would make them more wind resistant and warmer.

[Longblades]

I do it with thrift store sweaters and make mittens out of them. You can use a top loader or a front, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you use pure wool (though I've had success with sweaters up to 80% wool) wash in hottest hot, WITH detergent, rinse in coldest cold and dry on hottest hot. I have had to do a few three times. Part of the felting comes from the agitation of the machine.

WARNING - I've made lots and lots of mittens and this plays havoc with your sewing machine. It will fill up with lint.

Here's a link to the website I used for my mitten pattern:
http://www.earthheartdesigns.com/Pag...wn_mittens.htm

I've manged to get 5 or 6 pairs of mittens out of a man's size large sweater by adjusting the pattern to make men's, ladies and several smaller children's sizes. The hardest part is deliberately throwing some of those beautiful sweaters in the wash.

[BenMax]

This is pretty cool!

[Longblades]

Originally Posted by BenMax

This is pretty cool!

No, they're quite warm actually. Sorry, couldn't resist.

[quincymycat]

Originally Posted by pattymac

I've done a little bit with my sister before we moved west and would love to try doing more.

One day my sister brought over a wool scarf she knit to felt. We had a top-loading washer and hers is a front loader, not so good for felting. Really, really neat. She's also done some wet felting which is really pretty and seems pretty easy.

This made me ! I have done "felting", but the one time was NOT BY CHOICE!!! I had knit a hat, mitt and scarf set for a friend from 100% wool, and had tried to wash in in cold water to prevent shrinking...but the agitation still shrunk the heck out of them!!!
I didnt even have a little one to give them too after the damage.
It was only AFTER that I had heard that doing that was called felting!