Felting

Wool Felting

Articles related to wool felting, materials needed, how to, tips and tricks, felting tutorials.

Felting is not just for wool but can also be done with other animal fibers like llama, alpaca, rabbit, dog, and so on. Best to have 100% but according to the literature, over 50% of animal fiber will also work. You need to test out for yourself. Felting however cannot be done with silk, rayon, synthetics, viscose, acrylic, and other yarn contents.

Wool Felting 101

Woo-hoo! Am pretty excited about wool felting. Have been gathering information all over the place and here are the basics one needs to know to get started.

Strictly speaking, what we will be talking about here is called "fulling". In fulling, we use a woven, knitted, or crocheted woolen piece. In felting, we use raw fleece that does not have any initial structure.

But as 'fulling' becomes increasingly popular, the term "felting" is now used to mean the same thing. Less commonly, it is also referred to as "tucking", or "waulking".

Felting Yarn Needed

As with anything else, there does not seem to be 100% agreement on what kinds of yarns is needed.

No Machine Washable Yarn: For a certainty, you cannot use any yarn that is treated for "machine washing". (If it is, it will often say, "Machine Washable" or "superwash". These woolen yarns are treated so that they do not shrink and harden (felt) in the (machine) wash.)

100% pure wool ~ many state that only this can be used for felting. There are others who believe that anything with more than 50% wool content can be use. And that other animal hair can also be felted, e.g. camel, angora, alpaca, llama, ... and even long doggie hairs!

Some say that white or very white yarns are hard(er) to felt.

Knitting and Crocheting

You first knit or crochet up your project, e.g. hat, bags, swatches, animal shapes, whatever ...

Of the two, knitting seems to be more popular. Whether this is due to there being more knitters or that it works better, I am not sure but I am going to give both a try. Either case, the following reasoning is going to hold pretty much true for both.

Use a larger needle or hook than you normally would. So your piece will initially be pretty loose.
Why?
Felting is a result of heat, friction, and agitation. The loose stitches will help the yarn rub against each other during the agitation/felting process and should result in better felted results.
Make it even longer than normal (this is true for knitted items ~ not so sure about crocheted items at the moment).
Why?
Because a felted item shrinks more lengthwise (i.e. number of rows) than it does width-wise (i.e. no of stitches)
Assemble and sew pieces together (rather than felt loose pieces and try to sew them after they have felted).
Tidy up all loose ends of yarn - sew in, weave in, tuck away.

Done? So far we have only done the preliminary work and gotten ready our 'finished' pieces that we want to be felted. Now let's get to some felting or maybe you want to read some handy felting tips before you get your hands wet (literally).

How To Felt

To felt is to wash.

Felt using Top-loader washing machine (most common method; most popular)
Felt using Front-loader
Felt by Hand

Wool Felting - Front Loader

Wool Felt With a Front-Loader Washing Machine

Many people think that it is not possible to felt properly with a front loader. However others have done it very successfully and so obviously it can be done. There are a few things that have to be done differently though.

The process is basically the same (heat, agitation, check, shape, dry) ~ but due to the fact that you cannot open the door of the washing machine mid-wash, there are a few 'tricks' you have to employ to successfully wool felt with a front loader.

Materials

pillow case - zippered or you can tie 'mouth' during wash
(make sure your case/bag is large enough so that the project can more or less lie flat and move around during wash)
soap - mild laundry detergent, or baking soda, or mild shampoo, dish soap
agitator helpers - old jeans, tennis ball(s), boots, thongs - anything that can take the heat

Because a front loader does have have the central upright post as does a top loaded ~ which also acts to provide agitation during wash, the agitators helpers are even more important when using a front loader.

Pillow case: this is to hold your item to be felted during the wash. Zip up or tie up the mouth will keep it in the case. The case will prevent loose fibers from clogging up your machine and causing damage to it. For this reason, many advice not to use a lingerie netting bag or other laundry net bags with holes. The fibers can 'escape' and might clog up and damage your machine. Also if you have other garments etc. in the machine at the same time, escaping loose fibers will stick to them and be very difficult to remove.

Soap: use only a small amount - like a teaspoon. Make sure it is mild, preferably unscented and undyed.

One felter said she never uses any soap and still gets good results. Some advice against using dishwashing detergent ~ dish soap is apparently all right. I am not sure I know what the difference between the two is! Others claim that using dishwashing detergent is ok.

Some people use more accurate measurements than others as to how much soap they use but the core consensus seems to be *mild and *very little.)

Agitator Helpers: Felting occurs under heat when the fibers rub against each other. Woolen fibers have tiny scales on the surface. They open up when wet and when hot and are rubbed against each other, the scales close, bond, and irreversibly interlock.

So to felt an item, the more the agitation, the better the felted result. Throwing in an old pair of jeans, tennis balls, etc. together with your felting project increases this essential agitation process. Some throw the tennis balls into the pillow case together with the item to be felted. Basically, anything that can stand the hot water and will increase the agitation of woolen fibers against other will help.

This is also why you want to have looser stitches than normal when you knitted/crocheted up your project. Tight stitches have less change of rubbing against each other during the vigorous wash.

Some people use towels as their agitator helpers. Others tell you not to; something to do with the fibers from your project and the towels doing terrible things to each other.

Washing Machine Settings

Lowest water setting (or small load setting)
Highest temperature.
Longest or Highest Agitation but ..
Shortest Cycle
Cold Rinse
Preferably No Spin, No Drain
(side note: some felters have managed to do this with spin and still had good results, so don't worry too much if you cannot eliminate the spin cycle)
If it must spin, make sure it is Regular spin ~ not fast spin

Felting Process

Put your pillowcased-project (you might also want some tennis balls in the bag as well as outside) into the washing machine.
Throw in the agitator helpers you have (pair(s) of old jeans, thongs, rubber balls, rubber boots, etc)
Close door, use a tiny amount of mild detergent only, start the machine.
Do not let it go into spin or drain mode if possible. This will halt the felting process.
After its short cycle, take the project out. (you might have to turn the knob to get it towards the end of a cycle so that you can open the door)
Squeeze (not wring) out excess water to check.

If you should notice your piece is getting looser rather than firmer, don't worry. Initially some yarns will do this. This is a result of the yarn "relaxing" ~ the little scales on the woolen yarn opens up when wet.
Each time you check, check for creases and whether the pieces are felting together. Smooth out creases because they will become permanent once felted. Use your hands to separate sides (e.g. for a hat or bag) as you don't want to end up with one that is fused shut. Reshape with your hands if needed.
Put your project back into the machine for another very short cycle.

You need to check because once it starts felting, it can happen very quickly and you don't want your piece to be over-felted and too rigid.
Check, smooth, reshape and put back in and continue until the project is felted to your satisfaction.
Once you are happy with it, take it out and squeeze (not wring) out excess water.
If you feel it needs a bit more felting, you might want to Felt by Hand for the rest of the way.
Then plunge it into cold water. The drastic change in temperature helps to set the felting process. Rub and rinse out soap from the garment in the cold water.
If the rinsing and rubbing with your hands causes additional felting, don't worry about it. It will be insignificant.
When thoroughly rinsed of soap, again squeeze as much water out as possible. No wringing.
Roll up in some thick toweling to absorb even more water. Do this again if you have to.
When you have gotten out as much water as you can, it is time to dry it.
Flat pieces of work, you can stretch and block for drying.
For shaped pieces, reshape it. Use anything appropriate to its shape ~ bowl for round shapes, blocks or books for rectangles, or stuff it with something that will help define its shape during drying.
Let it dry, reshaping or turning it inside out if appropriate.
Depending on your climate and the project, the amount of drying time will vary.

Wool Felting - by Hand

Wool Felt by Hand

One of the best things about wool felting by hand is that you have full control over the felting process - start, check, stop, redo. On the other hand it does take more elbow grease (or opportunity for an exercise). It is ideal for felting up a swatch sample (which can only give you an idea of how the yarn felts and not so much about shrinkage if you are going to use a washing machine for the final project). Furthermore, this really is essential knowledge in felting because there may be times when, even if you are felting by washing machine, you might have to/want to finish the last final felting process by hand.

Not recommended for large pieces of felting project unless you are strong, have lots of stamina, and patience!
It took me half hour of vigorous swishing, rubbing, etc. to hand felt just a 11x11 cm (4.3x4.3") pre-felt knitted swatch.

Materials

container: bucket, bath tub, sink, or bucket ~ pending on the size of your project. Large enough to fully submerge your piece and to allow for vigorous agitation/swishing.
soap - mild laundry detergent, or baking soda, or mild shampoo, or dish soap
hot and cold water. Good idea to have a source of hot water available (e.g. boiling pot, hot hot water from tap, kettle) as you will be topping up quite a bit.
your hands - or some other agitator helper
rubber gloves (to protect your hands from hot water. Rough/ribbed rubber gloves also help increase agitation and improve felting)

Felting Process

Fill container with enough Hot water to cover piece to be felted as well as when you will be vigorously swishing/agitating it around.
I cannot stress the vigorous enough. You really have to put some energy into this. Just gently swishing pieces around will not do.
Add the few drops of detergent. So few that you hardly see any suds.
Use gloved hands, or stick to roughly move your piece around. Rubbing with knuckles or along the bottom and sides of container will help with the agitation process.
After a few minutes, take it out and squeeze (not wring) out excess water, lay flat (on towel) and check.
When it is out of the water, you can also rub it with your hands. With your ribbed gloved hands, rubbing the piece between you hands in circular motion, clockwise and anti-clockwise seems to help the best. Rub occasionally length and width-wise between your hands. I find that if you run one gloved finger lightly over your piece of soap, smear it on your piece and continue rubbing between your hands, that seems to help as well.
If piece is still not felting well, shock with a plunge into cold water.
Squeeze out excess water and repeat the hot water-agitation process (Refill/top up/replace with hot water if you feel water is getting too cold. Pour out some of the cooling hot water and replace with fresh hot water so that it does not take more and more new hot water to keep the water at a high temperature.)
Continue this way till you are happy that the piece has felted to your satisfaction.
Plunge and rinse one last time in Cold water.
When thoroughly rinsed of soap, again squeeze as much water out as possible. No wringing.
Roll up in some thick toweling to absorb even more water. Do this again if you have to.
When you have gotten out as much water as you can, it is time to dry it.
Flat pieces of work, you can stretch and block for drying.
For shaped pieces, reshape it. Use anything appropriate to its shape ~ bowl for round shapes, blocks or books for rectangles, or stuff it with something that will help define its shape during drying.
Let it dry, reshaping or turning it inside out once in a while if appropriate.
Depending on your climate and the project, the amount of drying time will vary.

Wool Felting - Top Loader

Wool Felt With a Top-Loader Washing Machine

Materials

pillow case - zippered or you can tie 'mouth' during wash
(make sure your case/bag is large enough so that the project can more or less lie flat and move around during wash)
soap - mild laundry detergent, or baking soda, or mild shampoo, or dish soap
agitator helpers - old jeans, tennis ball(s), boots, thongs - anything that can take the heat

Pillow case: this is to hold your item to be felted during the wash. Zip up or tie up the mouth to keep it in the case. The case will prevent loose fibers from clogging up your machine and causing damage to it. For this reason, many advise on not using a lingerie netting bag or other laundry net bags with holes. The fibers can 'escape' and might clog up and damage your machine. Also if you have other garments etc. in the machine at the same time, escaping loose fibers will stick to them and can be very difficult to remove.

Soap: use only a small amount - like a teaspoon. Make sure it is mild, preferably unscented and undyed.

Agitator Helpers: Felting occurs under heat when the fibers rub against each other. Woolen fibers have tiny scales on the surface. They open up when wet. When they are hot and are rubbed against each other, the scales will close, bond, and irreversibly interlock.

This is also why you should have had looser stitches than normal when you knitted/crocheted up your project. Tight stitches have less change of rubbing against each other during the vigorous wash.

Some people use towels as their agitator helpers. Others tell you not to; something to do with the fibers from your project and the towels doing terrible things to each other.

Washing Machine Settings

Lowest water setting (or small load setting)
Highest temperature.
Longest or Highest Agitation

Felting Process

Let water fill, adding your tiny amount of soap.
Then put your pillowcased-project and your agitator helpers into the washing machine and let it wash for about 5 minutes.
Open the lid (or stop the machine), pull out your project to see how it is felting. Squeeze (not wring) out excess water to check.

If you should notice your piece is getting looser rather than firmer, don't worry. Initially some yarns will do this. This is a result of the yarn "relaxing" ~ the little scales on the woolen yarn opens up when wet.
Each time you check, check for creases and whether the pieces are felting together. Smooth out creases because they will become permanent once felted. Use your hands to separate sides (e.g. for a hat or bag) as you don't want to end up with one that is fused shut. Reshape with your hands if needed.
Put your project back into the machine and let it continue for another 5-10 mins. Keep checking regularly. Use a timer if necessary.
You need to check because once it starts felting, it can happen very quickly and you don't want your piece to be over-felted and too rigid.
Put back in and continue. When, during your checks, you notice that it is almost done, you will need to check even more frequently: 1-2 mins interval.
Do not let it go into spin or drain mode. This will halt the felting process.
Once you are happy that it has felted to your satisfaction, take it out and squeeze (not wring) out excess water.
Then plunge it into cold water. The drastic change in temperature helps to set the felting process. Rub and rinse out soap from the garment in the cold water.
If the rinsing and rubbing with your hands causes additional felting, don't worry about it. It will be insignificant.
When thoroughly rinsed of soap, again squeeze as much water out as possible. No wringing.
Roll up in some thick toweling to absorb even more water. Do this again if you have to.
When you have gotten out as much water as you can, it is time to dry it.
Flat pieces of work, you can stretch and block for drying.
For shaped pieces, reshape it. Use anything appropriate to its shape ~ bowl for round shapes, blocks or books for rectangles, or stuff it with something that will help define its shape during drying.
Let it dry, reshaping or turning it inside out once in a while if appropriate.
Depending on your climate and the project, the amount of drying time will vary.

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.

Felt Knits vs Felt Crochet

Knitting and Crochet Felting Samples

I read that felting shrinks your pieces more lengthwise than it does widthwise, so I decided to do some experiment as soon as my new felting wool arrived. All yarn shown here are 100% wool. This was done by hand felting.

I also did both knitted and crochet swatches as there is not a lot of literature on Crochet Felting and I wanted to see for myself what the difference was and why it seems less popular than felt knitting.

I am sorry I forgot to take photos of the pre-felted pieces. (It was late in the night and I was too eager to knit and felt for the first time!) So all I can do now is draw outlines that, though not the real size, are to comparative scale so you can visually see the shrinkage from felting.

Every yarn felts and shrinks differently. This is only to confirm that shrinkage does occur more along the length (number of rows) then it does along the width (number of stitches). This seems true for knitted items but not for crocheted items.

Knitting vs Crochet Shrinkage in Felting

As you can see, my crochet swatch sample has shrunk more width-wise than it has length wise. I cannot guarantee that this will always be the case as this is only one sampling. But does at least say that the shrinkage you will face when you are knitting vs. crocheting with an aim to felting them, can be very different.

Other Differences between Felt Knits and Felt Crochet

Felted crochet is thicker and firmer. (So you might find that felted crochet might be good for base of bags, totes, etc.)
Felt crochet has more 'holes' (as a result of the difference in the structure of knit and crochet stitches). This may or may not be a good thing depending on what you are aiming for. For example, the 'holes' in felted crochet allows you to easily embroider ribbon or gauze ribbon and cords to embellish your finished pieces.
Sorry, even my close up does not show these holes. But you can see them if you hold them up to the light.

Felting and Beading

Felting & Beading

As I contemplate my fist felting project, I know I want to add some bling and beads to the felted project. (What actually happens in the end is anybody's guess at this stage!) But I cannot decide whether to bead and then knit/crochet and then felt, or whether to complete the felting project and then embellish.

A few of the questions I want answered before I start in earnest are:

If I use Swarovski crystals (for example) that have a coating on it, will either the crystals or its coating be affected by the felting process?
Will the shrinkage from the felting process 'swallow up' my beads so that they can not even be seen after the felting?
Can I use wooden beads, metal, plastic beads?

So I did some swatches, albeit, reluctantly.

Please note that the results of this testing is via Hand Felting. So I cannot tell how machine felting will differ .. or not. I know that machine felting will probably be much more vigorous than my hand felting. But I imagine that if your felting project is in the recommended (pillow) case, then the beads will have enough protection from the vigorous agitation and the results will be very similar to what I obtained here.

Beaded before Felting

The first picture here shows a knitted sample swatch that has been felted. I strung the beads before knitting up the swatch. Then I hand-felted the piece.

The second picture shows a crochet sample swatch that has been felted. Once again, beads are strung, then crocheted, then felted.

Beading Before Felting Results

None of the beads, metal, or finish on them are affected by the heated, vigorous, hand-felting process.
However .. some of the beads are loose and hang off the piece.
(Knitted swatch: enamel bead is actually quite loose though that is not obvious from image.
Crochet swatch: the crackle glass bead is also loose. If you look closely, you will see the loose stitch.)
The dangle beads from wire loops ~ ok but be aware that the wire part can get somewhat dangled with the fluff from the felted yarn. You can snip off the tangling fluff if you have to.
Crystal Bead (4mm) in the Knitted swatch has indeed almost been swallowed up in the felting.

Conclusion

The pre-felt beading results are mixed. It certainly can be done but the results are a bit unpredictable especially if you are contemplating various types of beads and/or sizes. I can only conclude at this stage that I might have better control over my embellishments after I have felted and completed my project. In short ~ Embellish After Felting.

Felt Balls from Wool Roving

Making Felt Balls from Wool Roving

Making Felt Balls from wool roving ~ I had so much fun with this and it is so easy to do! I was shopping for felt wool so I could learn how to crochet and knit felt. And I saw all these funny looking wool that was not yarn. As it turned out, they were wool roving (though it is also mistakenly called 'roving wool') and the colors were so lovely, I just had to buy me some to have a go. So glad I did!!

Sometimes, wool roving is also referred to as "tops"

I purchased this from an Australian seller Highland Cottage Crafts (ebayID: russtrees).

How to make a Felt Ball

Gently straighten out a clump you want work with. The wool roving is made up of fine combed fibers that can easily be pulled out.
Tease some out and make into a rough tiny ball. This is the start and is the core of your ball-to-be.
Keep teasing out small strands. Get as long a strand as you can. Not too thick per teased-out strand. Don't worry about them breaking.
Wrap that tightly around your core. Keep going in this way - trying to keep to a round shape till it is about Twice the size of what you want your final ball to be.
Hot water in a bucket. A tiny amount of mild soap. So little that the water hardly suds up.
Put on your ribbed rubber gloves.
Dunk your ball into the hot soapy water to soak it thoroughly.
Take the ball out onto the palm of your gloved hands and roll it between your palms. Don't squeeze it.
Just roll as if you were making a round ball from dough. The ball will start felting (fibers interlocking and combining together).
Dunk it back into the hot water occasionally to keep it hot. Then roll between your palms again.
Soon your ball will start hardening (felting together).
When you think it is done, plonk it into cold water to finish the felting.
Wrap it in some towel to absorb as much water as possible. Do not squeeze it out of shape (unless you want to of course)
Put it on some absorbent towel to dry. That's it!!!

Additional Optional Tips

It does not have to be round. You can make it any shape you want during the pre-felting process. And even after it has felted and while still wet, you can squeeze it into different shapes.
To make holes (as for beads), after felting, while still wet, poke a hole through with a sharp object (e.g. a long nail)
To add other colours - you can do this pre-felting as well as after the first felting. Just add different coloured wool roving in twirls or swirls.
You can also do this after the initial ball is felted. Just add your other colours and felt again. (Dunk in hot water, etc. etc.)
You can embellish (sew or glue on) your felted balls after it has dried - e.g. beads, crystals, buttons, metallic yarn, ribbons
It does take a long time to dry!!