felting oddness

[CorasMama]

ok, so I'm reeeally glad I decided to felt swatches before I knit a purse.

I have felted one other thing, a flower made from super bulky yarn. It shrank a bit more width-wise than heighthwise (is that a word?), which is what I'd figured it would do, so it turned out great

However... I knitted a few rectangular swatches, and the results are not at all what I figured.

I used Lion Wool and Cascade 220 Quattro. Each one I knitted doubled and single.

they all turned into trapezoids. Perhaps this is because either I didn't bind off loosely enough at the top, or because I did garter or seed stitch on the bottom

Cascade 220 quattro

Doubled:

Pre-felting:

bottom edge:

6"w top edge: 5.5"w
height: 3.25"h Felted:

bottom edge:

6 1/8"w, top edge: 5"w
height: 3"h

Single:

Pre-felting:

6"w x 4"h Felted:

bottom edge:

6.5"w, top edge: 6"w
height: 2.75"h Lion Wool

Doubled:

Pre-felting:

6.5"w x 5.5"h Felted:

5.5"w x 4.5 h

Single:

Pre-felting:

4.5w x 3.25"h Felted:

bottom edge:

5"w, top edge: 4 3/8"w
height: 2.5"h Where did I go wrong?

In some places, it's actually wider than before felting!

Should I not do seed or garter stitch? I noticed that there was no curling after the felting, and I'm thinking that it's the seed and garter stitches that were to blame for the wider areas.

But why is it shrinking more in height than width? That's the opposite of what I've heard it should do, and what I observed with the flower that I did

[TortelliniMama]

Originally Posted by CorasMama

But why is it shrinking more in height than width? That's the opposite of what I've heard it should do, and what I observed with the flower that I did

I think knitting usually does shrink more in height than width when felted. My guess would be that the bulky yarn you used for the flower resulted in more "airiness" in the knitting width-wise than usual, so that it was able to felt more width-wise than it usually would. The seed/garter stitch would also be denser than the stockinette, which could lead to less felting, and therefore less shrinkage. The way I understand it is, you need the knitting to have room for the yarn fibers to move around so that they can felt together. That's why felting patterns generally call for larger needles than you'd tend to use for the weight of yarn. Denser stitch patterns give less room for the fibers to move around and tangle and therefore less felting.

Are you designing the bag, or is this a pattern? If it's a pattern that calls for areas of seed/garter, I'd assume the designer is using them to provide shaping, so I'd go ahead and use them. If you're designing it, unless you want to use the different felting rates for some sort of shaping, I'd skip them. You're losing your stitch definition in felting anyway, so there's no point in doing stitches for the way they normally look.

[CorasMama]

yeah, I see the loss of stitch definition. Which is also making me regret the purchase of the Cascade Quattro for this project, since you can't see all the pretty colors. So I'll just have to use it for something else. Thing is, I don't really use wool that much, because I HATE the way it feels. I'd much rather use cotton, bamboo, silk (like I can afford silk -- ha!), or some other non-itchy fabric against my super-sensitive skin.