Felting
By auburndreams
@auburndreams (838)
United States
December 18, 2006 2:02am CST
I tried to find out mylot discussions on felting, but when I put it in the search window, my page won't load. So I'm starting a new one, and my apologies to anyone that had a similar thread already started that I should have replied to.
Felting is when you take wool and wash and dry it in a manner that causes it to bunch up or 'felt'. It also shrinks in the process. So if you make a felted hat for example, you have to make it bigger than your head size because it can shrink maybe 25%. It's a lot of fun but so far I've only experimented with making some felt balls.
But I'd love to hear other people's adventures in felting.
1 person likes this
18 responses
@gscs1838 (1536)
• Malaysia
18 Dec 06
felting refers to what happens to wool when you wash it with hot water. the fibers become tightly tangled and causes the wool to shrink creating the thick, sturdy fabric we know as felt. this can be done with wool in any form: knit, crocheted, and even unspun wool. just to give you an example of that, look at the following instuctions on how to felt with unspun wool:
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
I think you forgot to post your link or it just didn't show up. Please try again.
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
Here's free instructions for something called FELTED SQIGGLE BEASTIES. http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/squiggle_beasties_pattern.html
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
I meant Squiggle...stupid typo.
Here's a felted mini-purse. http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/bags/bag-mini-felt.html
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
18 Dec 06
I have only felted one hat. It was a cute brimmed one but it shrunk too much so never fit my daughter right. When I started knitting you couldn't find 100% wool yarn in craft stores and I couldn't afford to buy off the internet so I haven't really tried much. Now they sell all sorts of wool yarn at Jo-Ann's and Michael's and even Wal-mart. But I don't have a washing machine now and hand felting in hot water is a pain (saw it done on TV so I know the technique).
There is also a different kind of felting that uses bunches of wool (not yarn) and a felting needle. You felt the wool together by pushing the barbed needle through it. I have seen it turned into really cute dolls. I have never tried it because I can't afford to buy the wool.
1 person likes this
@4monsters4me (2569)
• United States
18 Dec 06
Ooh, they have a kit at Michaels? I'll have to check that out. I've been wanting to try it. Thanks for the tip.
1 person likes this
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
Yes, what you are talking about is needle felting. I almost bought a needle felting kit on etsy.com and a month ago I saw a needle felting kit at Michaels. I've seen needle felting photos on flickr.com as well. You can really make some very cute dolls that way.
The balls in my photo were made with wool roving. (That's wool that's been cleaned but not spun into yarn yet).
@nancygibson (3736)
• France
18 Dec 06
I've started discussions on felting before but havent had many responses, I do a huge amount of felting, mostly hats but other thngs as well if I feel like it. Have you seen the instructions for felted pointy hats that are out there on the web, I found that really inspiring and have made a lot of my own like that.
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
Oooh, I love pointy hats. Where did you see that? I'll post a photo of one of my pointy hats. It's not wool though so I can't felt it. But the idea is intriguing.
It looks like we have enough interest here to keep a felting discussion going now. Mylot is growing by leaps and bounds.
@polachicago (18716)
• United States
18 Dec 06
Can you make rugs? I did not see many felted products. Afghans are making few.
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
I'm sure that is possible though I have not seen one. To do it I'd make squares, felt them being careful to keep an eye on the shrinkage so they all ended up the same size, and then sew them together until I got the size of rug I wanted.
@nancygibson (3736)
• France
18 Dec 06
Felted rugs are a big project, its best done with batts of fibre, or merino tops broken out so you can lay them out. Do about 8 layers of fibre, then use sheets of bubblewrap to help get the first felting and shrinkage to take, I usually have to finish the shrinking in the washing machine though, its too hard to do a whole rug by hand
1 person likes this
@feralwoman (2199)
• Australia
19 Dec 06
I've not yet had any adventures in felting, but have got as far as collecting the fleeces from my shorn sheep. I've heard that a good method of cleaning them is to soak them in urine - have you heard this or do you have any more pleasant tips on how to clean fleeces!!!!
@nancygibson (3736)
• France
26 Dec 06
Urine is a wonderful degreaser but it does need to be stale so it will be very smelly, however, if you don't fancy using it just soak the fleece in a solution of soap and be careful not to shift it round too much or it will felt before you want it to. Squeeze it out gently, rinse eqyually carefully, and pread out to dry. Its as easy as that. You will scour the wool further furing felting so you can even start with raw fleece and just card it before laying it out
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
19 Dec 06
I have never cleaned fleece myself so hopefully someone else will jump in and let you know. There's got to be a better way than urine though.
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
18 Dec 06
If you go to Amazon.com or other book search engines, you'll find quite a lot of books on felting. You can make everything from baby slippers to hats.
1 person likes this
@vipul20044 (5793)
• India
18 Dec 06
Felting is a lot of fun and allows you to make homemade items that look really professional because you can't see the individual stitches. but i havent heard about it being done with crochet'
@nancygibson (3736)
• France
18 Dec 06
I've done several crochet and felt hats and bags, its a doddle to do and looks really nice
@birthlady (5609)
• United States
27 Dec 06
I've been felting ever since I started doing my own laundry! I've come by many cute doll dresses this way, but never on purpose! There were a few times I resized a too large sweater this way, it fit my then 3 year old daughter perfectly! Its easy to felt. Just wash in hot water then dry in a hot dryer!
@Meljep (1666)
• United States
19 Dec 06
It's interesting to hear it called that. Is there any cure for felting? It's very frustrating when you wash something with wool by mistake and "felting" happens. Wool garments are usually pretty pricey and tears can occur when you ruin something like this.
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
20 Dec 06
As far as I know, there is no way to unfelt something. And it certainly can be heartbreaking when you shrink something that was sentimental or cost a lot of money.
@yarntales (639)
• United States
26 Dec 06
I don't do much felting, at all.
Mostly because I don't care for working with wool much.
But I have done a few felted items.
They came out ok.
@auburndreams (838)
• United States
19 Dec 06
I'm making them to juggle with. But I heard you can also get one of those cat toy balls with a bell inside and felt over it, and make a very nice cat toy, since cats love wool. So after I'm done with this project, I'm going to try doing that.
@DiosaMorada (115)
• United States
19 Dec 06
I felted backpacks. They turned out great, I even sold a couple. I used eyelas along with the wool to give it some extra trexture, so cute!
@ineedaname (957)
• United States
18 Dec 06
I have never heard of this. I don't get out much I guess!! Have fun with your felting. Good luck!
@trshkershaw (198)
• Spain
18 Dec 06
Well it sound interesting and unusual, are you sure you have not made this up and just shrunk your favorite jumper in the wash and now want to make a career move. Good for you
