tell me about felting

[LdyBluNH@aol]

i understand the general concept that you knit up a thing using a natural fiber and then wash it

what i havent sorted out is do you have to knit the thing a bit bigger? does it shrink when it felts or does it just felt?

what sort of fibers can you use? i think wool is ok, but i dont know if it has to be a special kind

any special soap or etc needed for the washing?

i'd like to try doing this with my dd this week and can't cope with a google search. seems like everytime i do one i get sucked into the void for two hours LOLL


i've seen a kit for making turtles or fish which i think she'd love, but i think the knitting is on a smaller scale than what she's ready for

[Dragonfly]

Here's a good article:

Felting

I'm working on my first felting project right now, so can't give firsthand experience. From what I've read, though, you can definitely expect shrinkage - I think the level of shrinkage might depend on both the composition of the fiber and maybe the level of agitation during the washing process. You can use any animal fiber as long as it's handwashable or dry clean only. You don't want anything that's been treated to be machine washable. Different fibers give a different look. Some end up with more of a "haze" than others (I think that's the case with angora and merino or any fiber that starts out with a "hairy" look).

There are some links at knitty.com in the archives for felted bag patterns. One of those might be a fun project for you and your daughter and would be larger scale knitting.

[pageta]

Felting works with wool, but each type of wool from each yarn company felts differently. So you need to do a swatch - measure it before and after - and also keep track of how much washing it took to felt it. So wash for 10 minutes, re-measure, wash for another few minutes then re-measure. Keep a record of exactly how you felted it (water temp, agitation, soap, etc.) and how much it felted at each point. Then you'll know how to adjust your knitting in order to get a final product with specific measurements.

[tboroson]

Different animal fibers will felt different amounts, wool is definately the "gold standard" for felting. I'm not sure you'd get much felting at all out of mohair or angora, but I've never tried it so I can't be sure.

Your product will *definately* shrink a lot during felting. It will also thicken up a bit and stiffen. What you're doing is making those scaly fibers grab on to each other and cozy up nice and tight. It will felt quickly at first, then you'll hit a point of diminishing returns where you get very little if any additional felting. You don't have to felt it as far as it's going to go, in fact you might not want to if you want your product to be nice and pliable later. But, if you don't felt it all the way, you won't be able to machine wash it later without it shrinking/felting further.

So, if you were felting fabric for diaper soakers or wraps, you would want to experiment with different starting fabrics (whether handknitted or store-bought woven) and see which ones felt all the way until they don't seem to shrink anymore, and yet remain pliable enough to be comfortable for their purpose.

If you're felting for something that could be handwashed more comfortably, say a hat, you have a lot more flexibility in your starting textile. But, still, do a felt swatch before you start knitting! A good first project might be a Christmas stocking or a handbag, in which the final size isn't very critical.

[madrone]

But there are two ways to felt. You can felt something already knitted or just felt something. And different wools do felt differently. For example, karakul (or something like that) sheep wool is an excellent felter and is really good for rugs. There are other types of sheep that don't felt well. Goes with just about every animal.

Knitted then felted items have much more bend and softness than just felted items. Felted clothing needs to be knitted first. But rugs, hats, and shoes work well just felted. To felt something without knitting, you just put the woal in a much larger dimension of the rough shape you want, put some liquid soap on it (Dr. Bonner's works well), and start rubbing it. Once the wool starts matting up, you can speed up the process by putting it in the machine for a few minutes. As it felts, you'll be able to shape it quite easily and control where it felts more and less.

[Queen Gwen]

Sometimes the knit-then-felt is called "fulling", and felting plain, unspun roving is called "felting". It sort of depends on who you're talking to. Plus there's such a thing as dry felting, which is done on roving with felting needles. And you can dry felt onto your wet felting....

I agree with starting with something sort of generic like a handbag. Knitty.com has some patterns.

As you look through yarn catalogues you may notice that some yarn has a "great for felting" notice in the description. Obviously you need to avoid superwash wool, which has been treated so it doesn't felt.

You can also get wool sweaters at Goodwill, felt/full them in the washer, then cut them up to make vests, patchwork items (for some reason tea cosies spring to mind -- I must have seen this somewhere).