How to Felt
What is felting?
Felting is the process of creating a thick fabric - or felt - by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. You can felt different types of fibers, and while wool is specially suited for this, yarns labeled superwash will have a higher tolerance to washing, and will not felt.
How does felting work?
When wool is washed in the washing machine in hot water, its fibers expand and stick together = they are felted together, by the combined process of heat, agitation and friction, giving as result a warm and very durable material. Including a detergent in the wash is always recommended, to help fibers slide together more easily.
Felting of garments is best suited for smaller pieces like hats, socks, slippers and bags. The looser the tension, the denser the felting will be. The more friction in the wash, the more the garment will felt.
Keep in mind that garments will felt more vertically than horizontally, so we recommend using patterns specifically designed for felting. Find patterns suitable to felt here.
Important: The result after felting may vary according to:
- Type of washing machine
- Spin/cycle speed
- Knitting tension
- Size of garment
- Quality of wool
How to felt following a pattern
Knit following the pattern - the garment will look big - but will shrink in the felting process.
Wash the garment in the washing machine with an enzyme-free detergent without optical bleach. Wash warm on 40C/104F, normal spin, without pre-wash. Never felt a garment on a short cycle. Adding a small towel in the same wash will increase the friction and speed up the felting process.
When the washing program is finished, block the garment in the desired shape while it is still wet - the more wet the garment is, the easier it is to shape it.
If the garment is still too big, wash it again and block into the desired shape afterwards. If the garment is too small, soak it thoroughly with water and stretch to the right size.
Click here to see examples of DROPS yarns before and after felting