Felting
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[edit] Summary
Felting is a process that turns your finished knitted project into a single matted piece of fabric. All stitch definition disappears and you can now cut and sew the piece without having it unravel.
It works with pure animal fibers such as wool or alpaca. Blends generally do not felt well. However, combining synthetic novelty yarns and wool can create an interesting mix of felted and un-felted yarn.
Fine details do not generally show up well in felted projects. Details should contain at least 2 stitches in order to have good definition. If you need fine detail, it can be added after the main piece has been machine felted using hand felting.
Items do not shrink equally during the felted process. Meaning that the amount a piece will shrink vertically and horizontally is different. The shrinkage also changes depending on what stitch it is knitted in (ex. stockinette vs. garter). Follow the instructions below to knit a swatch to see the felting ration of each dimension for your yarn and stitch.
[edit] Machine Felting Instructions
This method uses the washing machine to create the heat and agitation to cause the felting process.
This should be done with a top loading washing machine, since you will need to remove the piece during the wash cycle to check on it.
Before you felt a project, you should knit a swatch and measure how much the fabric will shrink and how long the felting will take in your machine. See below for instructions on how to take these measurements.
- Fill the machine with the minimum amount of hot water possible.
- Add a small amount of detergent (1 tablespoon)
- Add you knitted piece along with a pair of jeans to the machine.
- When the yarn felts it sheds fibers. Knitted items should be placed inside a zippered pillow case to prevent these fibers from clogging you washing machines plumbing lines.
- Check on the project every 5 minutes to monitor the process.
- Every washing machine and fiber felts differently, so the first time you felt with a new fiber or machine, check it very often. Once felted, you can't go backwards and un-felt the piece.
- In general it takes between 10-20 minutes to complete the felting process.
- Once you have reached the desired amount of felting, remove the piece from the hot water and rinse it in very cold water to remove the detergent.
- What is the desired amount of felting? The fabric should be dense and the stitches should no longer be visible.
- Shape the piece and leave to dry for 2-4 days.
- Shaping hats: A Styrofoam head from a beauty supply shop works well. Ballons also worked well.
- Shaping bags: Use a box covered in a plastic garbage bag that is the same dimensions as you finished bag.
[edit] Hand Felting
You can add small details to a felted project using hand felting. You can purchase hand felting tools at most yarn stores.
- Place a strand of yarn on top of an already felted item.
- Place a needle felting pad on the back side of the material.
- Use a felting needle to press the strand of yarn into the felted material. As you stab it with the needle it will become part of the felted material.
[edit] How to make a Felting Swatch
- Knit a swatch that is at least 5" x 5"
- Mark the center of the piece with a piece of yarn that won't felt (cotton or synthetic yarn)
- Measure a box that is 4" x 4" around the center marker. Tie a piece of yarn that won't felt (cotton, acrylic, etc) at each corner of the 4"x4" box.
- Tip: Use a different yarn for one corner tie so you can tell which end is up.
- Machine felt the swatch taking it out and measuring the distance between the 4 corners every 5 minutes. Transfer that data into a table like the one shown below.
- Note how long it takes to finish the felting process
- Calculate the felting ratio for the horizontal and vertical directions using the equation shown in the table below.
- You've taken 2 measurements in each direction. If they don't match, then take the average of them to get the felting ratio.
| Side | 5 min | 10 min | 15 min | 20 min | Felting Ratio |
| Side 1 | a1 | a2 | a3 | a4 | a4/a1 |
| Side 2 | b1 | b2 | b3 | b4 | b4/b1 |
| Side 3 | c1 | c2 | c3 | c4 | c4/c1 |
| Side 4 | d1 | d2 | d3 | d4 | d4/d1 |
Now with Numbers
| Side | 5 min | 10 min | 15 min | 20 min | Felting Ratio |
| Side 1 | 4 | 4 | 3.75 | 3.625 | (3.625/4)=0.91 |
| Side 2 | 4 | 4 | 3.5 | 3 | (3/4)=0.75 |
| Side 3 | 4 | 4 | 3.75 | 3.5 | (3.5/4)=0.88 |
| Side 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.5 | 3 | (3/4)=0.75 |
Felting ratio in the horizontal direction: (0.88+0.91)/2=0.89
Felting ratio in the vertical direction: (0.75+0.75)/2=0.75
What does this mean?
It means after 20 min of felting the yarn will be 89% of it's pre-felting dimension in the horizontal direction and 75% in the vertical dimension. If you are designing a pattern these ratios are important so you can know how many stitches you need to cast-on and knit in order to get correctly sized finished item.
