Thursday, October 11, 2007

Felting/Fulling

Last xmas I knit up a pair of slippers at my dad's place. I was hoping to "full" them in his washing machine but I realized I'd left my last ball of yarn at home in Winnipeg, an 8 hour drive away! So I had to finished knitting them when I got home. :(

Fulling is the process of turning a %100 wool, knitted item into felt through exposure to friction and heat. Technically, the term "felting" refers to the same process but with raw fiber that has not been spun and knitted. You can "full" an item by hand in a sink of hot water. I had used that method for mittens and the hat/booties in my last post but my slippers would have taken a lot of elbow grease not to mention hours! The problem is I live in an apartment with coin op washers. These offer no control of water levels or timing of the cycle, not to mention the number of quarters I'd need! I did see an article on fulling your knitting in a bucket with a plunger. Maybe I'll try that another time.

So I waited until I was home at my dad's once again this Thanksgiving. To my dismay, he'd gotten a new front loading washer and I had read that you couldn't use them for fulling. I did a little searching online though and found that at least one person had tried it. So I figured I'd give it a whirl. It worked!

Here's how I did it:

I put the slippers in a zippered pillow cover and threw them in the washer with a pair of jeans (to increase agitation because front load washers have less agitation to be nicer on clothes).

I ran it through a hot wash and cold rinse, without soap. I used the "quick wash" option because it had the lowest water level. It was also a shorter cycle which proved useful because I could check my slippers' progress. It may be more difficult to do smaller items in a front loader because they might felt too fast and it's difficult to stop mid cycle. My slippers took about 4 cycles though. I let it go on the spin cycle too, on medium speed. It really sped up the drying process!



I am very happy with the results and I'll definitely use my dad's front loader again!


Allison