Ahh, more adventures in felting/fulling on CraftBlog! Previously I wrote about how to hand felt your projects, now I’ll speak about the far less manual version of just chucking it in the washing machine aka “time to ignore everything the laundry label tells you to do”!

Machine felting works great for larger pieces, you lose the control that you have with hand felting, but it also allows you to sit down and have a cup of tea whilst your washing machine does all the work, which is always a win in my book. If you’re a knitter or crocheter you can felt your own projects, but even if you’re not you can still use this technique to make your own wool felt for sewing projects, usually for far cheaper than you would buy it.

I have no patience for large crochet projects, so for me this technique starts with a trip to an Op Shop or a Thrift Store, for me it was St Vinnies which turned out to be a smorgasbord of inspiration. As with hand felting, you’re restricted to wool only, much to my dismay as there was a huge collection of handmade scarves that would have made some beautiful little clutch bags, but as they were acrylic they had to stay behind. Find some jumpers or scarves in amongst the jumble and check the labels to see what kind of make up they have, anything that is 100% wool is perfect. You’ll find a lot of handmade items which obviously won’t have laundry labels, in this case it’s just a learnt technique, feeling the yarn used to work out what it’s composed of. I have a sensitivity to animal fibres, just lightly brushing them makes me itch like crazy, which although it sucks in the sense that I can’t crochet with wool for more than half an hour at a time without breaking out in a rash, it makes me an expert at picking out which yarns are which

The Jumper Haul

I came away from St Vinnies with four jumpers for the grand total of $23.

From top to bottom…

• Handmade jumper, feels like 100% wool, I’d guess DK weight. It made me so sad to see all the handmade jumpers that have probably been gifted by someone who put a load of work into it only to be donated after a year or so when the giftee figured that it was forgotten about.
• Pullover, this was a test one, it was 90% wool and 10% spandex, I wanted to see whether even with that small amount of man made fibre would stop the felting process.
• A handmade pullover, I’m guessing this one is made from mohair, it’s fairly fuzzy. It’s another tester as I want to see what will happen to something that’s knit on some big needles, the picture doesn’t show it clearly but the weave is VERY open.
• A 100% lambswool jumper, this one must have been well loved, it has a couple of repairs on it, and someone has even hand sewn leather patches to the elbows as they were wearing thin.

The felting process is simple, just throw them in your washing machine on a hot wash cycle with a small amount of laundry powder, if you have a “heavy duty” setting that’s even better as it will give you extra agitation. Top loaders are best because you can pause them and check the progress as you go, but running a shorter cycle on a front loader will allow you to do the same.

The results!

• The spandex definitely affected the felting process on the pullover, the stitches are still visible and it doesn’t have the smooth look that I like. That said, when I cut into it there was no fraying or unravelling, so it’s formed a solid piece of fabric, just not the look I was going for. I ended up putting this through three wash cycles to see if it would felt any further and it just wasn’t happening.
• The lambswool jumper came out beautifully after just one cycle, minimal shrinkage and it’s formed a beautiful piece of wool felt, this would be awesome for making softies.
• The handmade pullover didn’t visibly felt at all, just became very fluffy, but I cut out a patch of fabric and there was no unravelling at all, so the wool had bonded to itself, but not to the extent where the stitches are no longer visible, probably because of the large gauge. It’s still usable, but not the look I was going for. This one got three cycles before I gave up!
• The handmade jumper came out fabulously, just one cycle felted it perfectly, the stitches are completely gone but the pattern is still there and the result is a very solid fabric. The shrinkage on this one was huge though! I started off with what I would have guessed as a size 16 or 18 jumper and once felted it’s a closer fit to my toddler. It had exactly the same treatment as the lambswool sweater but the difference in the finished size is huge, the only thing I can guess is that this is the result of one being manufactured and one being handmade?

The handmade jumper and the lambswool are definitely usable, and for just wool felt in those size pieces you’re probably looking at $40-$50. The spandex pullover is usable but I’m not currently sure what for. I think I’ll probably throw out the purple mohair pullover as I can’t think of anything it would be suited for and I’m not keen on the effect.

If you want to play with felting but don’t yet feel ready to risk a knitting project that you’ve been working on for two months, this is an awesome way to dabble in it and get a better idea of how yarns will react, it also gives a home to all those sad lonely hand knitted jumpers and unwanted Christmas presents that are languishing in your local op shop. I love the process of giving someone’s work a new lease of life, so go down to your Charity Store and “rescue” a handmade jumper from them, although probably less entertaining, I can promise it’ll be cheaper than rescuing a puppy