Wool Felting Tips

Wool Felting Tips

Handy list of checklist and tips you should at least once to make sure you get a smile and not a frown on your face when your felting is done.

• Bleached yarn - yarns that have been bleached (to white or very white) may not felt. Bleaching damages yarn fibers. So do a swatch test to check if it will felt properly.
• Details - Much of the finer details in your knitted/crocheted item will be lost in felting. So fancy stitches might not translate well into the final product. However do not expect the felting to 'cure' or 'hide' glaring mistakes in your knitting. It obviously will hide some but don't bank on it.
• Different Yarns - not a good idea to knit/crochet different yarns (brands, ply) as they all felt up very differently. Especially if you have a structured project. After felting, the shape and size of the fabric might be 'funny' due to the different felitng abilities of the dissimilar yarn. (This is leart through hard, sad, experience.)
• Done? - how do you know when your felting is done? A certain amount of personal preference will have to come into play. But basically it is when your stitches start losing their definition indicating they have bonded and interlocked together. You do not have to felt till it cannot shrink any further. Hence the constant checking during the felting process. It all depends on what your project is and what felting final size you are aiming for.
• Eeek! - if your felted project turns out a "failure", take heart. Felted items will not unravel. So you can safely cut and resew. Cut them into different shapes and use them as groovy pieces to embellish other works or for other purposes. Overly large bags can be cut down and resewn together with bold, decorative stitches. Or, being very warm, your doggy would also love it!
• Felting at Different Rates - Even if you have used yarns of the same weight/ply, they may not felt the same way.
  If you notice that there are parts in your project that is not felting properly during you stop-checks, you might have to felt those parts with your hands.
  Take the item and put in hot water. Using your hands, rub those non-felting parts together to help the agitation so that they start felting like the other parts. Plunge in cold water and continue with your (machine-) felting process.
• Fringes/Tassles - you can do these after felting - unless you want dreadlocks (which many people do).
• Holes in your work - if you have holes (dropped stitches) in your pre-felted project, make sure you repair them before the felting process. You might think that the felting will help close the holes. They most probably won't and might actually get worse during the agitation that is to come.
  Buttonholes and eyelets might also actually close during the felting. You might need to take a pair of sharp scissor to "reopen" your buttonholes after the felting is over.
• Light and Dark Fibers - if you have light and dark/colourful fibers in your felting project, it might be a good idea to use Color Stay or some other colour stabilizer during your machine-felting process.
• Non-machine Washable Wool - remember to check that the wool yarn that you are using is not marked "super wash" or "machine washable" as these will not felt. Ask your supplier if you can.
  You can however use other types of (non-felting) yarn, e.g. glittery, metallic, fuzzy yarn and knit with, knit into, or interweave between rows of your work before the felting.
• Pillowcase/Bag - if you have used a pillowcase during your (machine) felting, turn the pillowcase inside out when finished with your project.
  Dry your inside out pillowcase in your dryer. This will help remove all those trapped fibers. Remember to clean the dryer's lint trap when done. Now your pillowcase is ready for your next project.
• Pre-felt size - remember to use larger needles/hooks than normal so your pre-work is always larger than your desired end project.
  Also make sure it is even longer. Felting shrinks more length-wise (number of rows) than it does width-wise (number of stitches).
• Pre-soaking - sometimes it helps to presoak your knitted finished item before the felting process. Soaking swells the yarn fibers and make them more receptive to the agitation.
• Too Big/Too Small - a too large item can usually be felted again to make it smaller. Note however that the reverse is not true. A project that has shrunk too much in the felting process cannot be made bigger again. You can wet, stretch, block, and dry it but it may only gain very little in size.
• Washing - when you wash/clean your felted project, wash them the same way as you do for non-felted sweaters ~ no hot water and rough agitation - otherwise you will get those unwanted shrinking-felting results.