The Wonderful World of Felting

Most people will be forgiven for not knowing what on earth felting is, but once you discover the technique it is difficult to stop. If you are a reasonable knitter then this technique is a very easy way of turning a knitted fabric into a firm, stiff fabric suitable to cutting sewing and shaping into toys, bags and bowls.

The first thing to do is to choose your wool. 100% (or close to it) animal fibre is best. So this means sheep wool, lambs wool, alpaca or mohair. When knitting it is best to choose needles which are a couple of sizes too large for the wool used. This will give an open fabric prior to felting which will agitate better – more on that later.

Bear in mind that what ever you knit will shrink up to 4 sizes smaller. So what you think might be a great roomy bag, may well turn out to be a purse. So knit everything much larger. The other option is to simply knit a large square or rectangle and cut it and sew after felting, into the design you want.

Felting instructions

• Take your knitted fabric and place into a washing machine with a small amount of liquid washing detergent and a pair of jeans for extra agitation.
• If you have used a type of wool which sheds it's fibres you may want to place the item into a pillowcase to catch the fibres before they clog up your machine.
• Wash the item on a cool wash for around 20 mins and take it out before it spins. You can then check to see it is has shrunk to the size you want.
• Place it back in the machine several more times until you get the density of fabric which you require. This takes practise as each type of wool will react differently and some may require hotter and longer washes to felt properly.
• Once you have approximately the shape and size you want, you need to dry it into shape. The fabric can be stretched and pulled into whatever size or shape you require.
• For a bowl place the fabric inside a glass or metal bowl and fill with marbles or beads. Once dry the felted material will take the shape of the bowl.
• A handbag needs to be dried stuffed with material to keep its shape.
• For a flat piece of felting, simply drying with books placed on top will be fine.

You now have a piece of felt which can be used in any way. Handbags can be embellished with wooden handles and buttons sewn on; toys can be stuffed with fibre filling. The fabric is excellent as pot stands and oven mitts in the kitchen as it is thick and heat resistant.

Once you have practised this technique a few times, you can start to experiment with different colours. You can even mix together non-felting yarns, such as metal threads to add accents to the felt.

Your imagination is the only limit to this wonderful skill. Even if you over felt something and end up with a wad of wool, you can give it to the cat and call it a pet toy. No one will know any different.