Felting

Here's the story of some real felting, not "just" fulling of something knitted. Annie invited us (Debi and me) to try it in her studio. Tusind tak, Annie! Det var virkelig hyggeligt og spændende at lære.
We made two hats, each constructed on a ball, in three layers of wool. In the first layer, the fibers of the roving are vertical (right hat), while the second layer is wrapped in a spiral (left hat), putting the fibers horizontal:
The third layer is again vertical, and is - more or less - the only layer that shows in the end, the second layer peeking through just a bit. We decorated the third layer with different colors of roving and scraps of yarn to give interesting effectsNow comes the part with the hot soapy water. The entire ball with wool is wrapped in nylon stockings with the legs cut off (two pairs) that are knotted tightly. This keeps the wool more or less in place during the bouncing stage (yes, technical term) where the entire assembly is bounced in the hot soap water for 10-15 minutes. This felts the wool together, forming a fabric (which is strong because its three layers are at right angles to each other).
Now comes the fulling stage, in which the hat is rubbed against a washing board, or in our case a tray for paint. This makes the fabric shrink and thicken (the only stage you go through with items that are knitted, because they are already a fabric when you begin)We fulled the hats until they fit, trying them on several times on the way, and shaping them to our heads and taste. I kept my hat round, Debi made hers flat on top. This is maybe the most interesting stage, where the wool can be bent and worked. In the very end, we ran the hats on a wool program in the washing machine to wash out the soap, followed by some final shaping (as the machine washing shrinks the hat somewhat).


Hello there, we may look a bit funny, but so would you if you had wet wool with lots of soap on your head:

Fuzzy Feet

Our house is typical American, built like there was no tomorrow, and OPEC was a brand of candy... single windows in metal frames to be sure the outside temperature is efficiently transmitted to the inside. Luckily, a knitter can take it into her own hands to do something about those feet that are chilled by the constant draft.
I had been wanting to try felting, or rather fulling for a while (I believe fulling is actually the correct term for what we refer to as felting of a knitted item - det samme som forskellen mellem filtning og valkning på dansk), so Fuzzy Feet seemed like the perfect thing, curing the cold feet situation at the same time.
The knitting is really ugly, because of the loose gauge and frogged yarnSo the project was actually hibernating for a long time due to the ugliness. But I managed to finish, and went to a laundromat with top-loading machines. All the descriptions of fulling tells you how careful you must be, how the process suddenly speeds up and it's a matter of seconds to save the piece before it turns into a tiny lump of felt... So I was watching carefully as I ran them in one warm cycle with a towel for agitation. Good thing a laundromat has so many special types of people to keep you company while you wait... Well, after the warm cycle, the stitches were drawn much more together, but the overall size of the slippers was still very large. I wasn't sure the temperature was really 40 C as a warm cycle is supposed to be, so I ran them again, this time in a hot cycle, which is supposed to be 60 C, but didn't even feel like 40 C. Well, it helped more than the warm cycle, the stitch definition beginning to go away, but the size still much too large. But by now, my strange activity had caught the eye of the laundromat owner. He didn't tell me to stop it, but I decided to quietly slip out with my wet wool before accused of anything.
Also, each wash was $2.5, so it was time to take matters even more into my own hands. Transported the thing home, made some really hot soap water and a bowl of really cold water, and scrubbed them around in the two by turn until the size looked right. Then, the really fun part. Put some plastic bags on my feet, stepped most of the water out of the slippers in a towel, put slippers on, and walked around on the carpets for a while. The slippers are now perfectly moulded to my feet, and here they are the next day after drying: Looks like something that would do in the Sherwood Forest :)
After about a week of use, they have softened a bit, but the size has not changed much. They are very warm and comfortable. The only worry is that they may wear out too soon!