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Felting 101 (in the washing machine) - aka wool + hot water + alkalinity (soap) + agitation = felting or fulling Use the lowest water level setting, hot water (but not so hot that you can't reach your hand in and fish your item out to check on it), and high agitation (or normal cycle) Add a pair or two of old jeans to help with agitation (or washable tennis shoes, tennis balls, anything that will give some good agitation - it's best not to use terrycloth towels or anything that will "shed", as the lint may become a permanent part of the your felted item). Add a teaspoon of dish
soap (I like Ivory dish soap). You only need that wee bit of soap to
provide the alkalinity felting requires (and to reduce the surface tension
of the wool) -- too many soap bubbles actually interfere with the felting
process. Put the piece to be felted in a zippered pillowcase (protects your washer) Keep resetting the washer to the beginning of the wash cycle, keeping it in agitation mode, and not allowing it to go beyond that, into spin / rinse mode Set a timer for yourself, and check the progress every 5 minutes or so, more often as your piece nears the size or thickness you want it to be. (If you're felting more than one piece, check each one) You'll also want to readjust your piece each time you check it to help avoid creases. If you're felting/fulling a sweater, keep going until it's as thick as you want the fabric to be. Be patient, sometimes things take what seems like forever to felt. I like to use the time while I'm felting to knit… of course I like to use just about any time to knit…= } If you need to take a break to run an errand, just turn the washer off and start it up when you return (you may want to remove your piece, set the washer to spin the water out and start the cycle over to ensure the water is hot). Remember, once your piece starts to felt, the process will happen quite quickly, so it's important to check it frequently from that point on. When your piece is the size/thickness you want, take it out, rinse it in lukewarm water and squeeze out as much water as you can. You can wrap it in a towel and step on it a few times. If you choose to use the washer to spin the water out, keep in mind that creases may form. At this point,
your felted piece will respond very nicely to shaping and blocking. You
can push, pull, and stretch it to where you want it, and use various and
sundry blocking devices if you're making a hat, bowl or purse (see FYI
#2 below). Now let it air dry!
FYI #1: If there are areas on your piece that you feel need a little further felting, you can felt them by hand using bubble wrap (I use packing tape to make a bubble wrap "glove"), or an old-fashioned scrub board if you have one, or even just your hands. Remember you need hot water + soap + agitation, so run some hot water over the part you want to felt, add a couple of drops of soap, and rub, rub rub! You can also choose to felt your item entirely by hand. The direction that you rub will be the direction that the item will felt, i.e., if you want your piece to shrink in width, rub back and forth across the width. FYI #2: To block a bowl, various sizes of balloons are the trick. Put the balloon in the bowl and then blow it up. A smaller balloon placed over a mason jar provides a pedestal of sorts to smooth and form the bottom of the bowl. You can then blow up a larger balloon and hold it closed to keep the air from escaping, and lean on it - it will gently push the sides of the bowl out into a nice round shape. To block a purse or bag, if it's round, use the same techniques as for a bowl, above. If it's square/rectangular, find a box the right size, place a plastic bag over it, and then stretch your bag over that. For a hat, find a bowl that's approximately the size you want and block the hat on that. For slippers, block them on your feet and walk around a bit - you'll even be able to tell which is the right and the left slipper! You can leave your piece as is or you can embellish it with beads, needle felting, silk ribbon embroidery….. let your imagination run wild, and most of all have fun with the process! Here is a site with a lot
of great felting information. It primarily applies to felting un-spun
fleece, but the process is much the same: And here is a yahoo group which is a good resource of felting/fulling info and inspiration: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fulling_around/ Feel free to e-mail if you
have any questions, Back
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