Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Felting Help

Or your could remove the "P" from the title and it would explain everything.
So I tried to get my new washer to fill with Hot water so I could felt my slippers - but that doesn't work - don't know why - all the hoses are hooked up correctly and I do have plenty of hot water......

Anyway so the slippers are sitting in a pot of hot water on the stove - how long is this going to take? It's just not working. They've been there (Stirred often) for over an hour and there is hardly any change - this is Brown Sheep yarn even - should felt easy. What happens if I pull them now and try again when I have a few more hours - it's almost 10:00 pm now and I can't stay up all night........
Help please!!!

3 comments:

Joan said...

You need some kind of agitation and change in water temperature to felt them. If you can do it in the sink, fill one side with really hot water, the other with ice cold water. Use rubber gloves so you don't burn your hands. Use soap and vigorously rub them in the hot water and then dunk them in the cold water. Do this back and forth, even using a washboard if you have one until the wool felts or fulls. When they are to your liking, rinse them and squeeze the excess water out with towels, shape them with your hands and let them air dry. You can stuff them with plastic grocery bags to hold their shape. I often use Murphy's Oil Soap to help retain the oils in the yarn. So lots of soap, hot and cold water and rub the bejesus out of them.

JulieLoves2Knit said...

Jaon - thanks for the info about felting...I finally figured out how to go around the washers settings and get some hot water (It's brand new and has this engergy saving feature that cools the water down) anyway I worked at it til after midnight and got some results....but it's still not felted enough - so am going to try some more this evening - what if I stuck them in the dryer. They are still too big.....all this work!
Thanks for your help - I appreciate it!!
Julie

Rhonda the Stitchingnut said...

Hope I'm not too late ... now that you figured out how to get hot water in your washer, when you put them in the washer add a big bath towel with it [that's the agitation] and Joan is right, put a little soap in there also. Stop the washer & check it after 5 minutes ... until they're the size you want. My hat is felted this way.

The grocery bags inside while drying is another good idea, as Joan said.