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Hand Felting Your Knitted Items
Hand Felting is becoming increasingly popular and is a great way to make hard wearing useful items such as slippers,mittens, oven gloves, hats and bags etc.
Many people felt using the hot wash of a washing machine but felting by hand allows more control over the amount of shrinkage, it is very easy to perform and saves a lot on electricity.
Hand Felting Instructions:-1,Not all yarns will shrink when wet so check the washing instructions on the ball band and if it is listed as machine washable, then it probably won’t felt. If in doubt just make a 10cm x 10cm swatch follow the felting process below and then see how much it has shrunk in each direction.
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2,Using water as hot as you can bear
it, ( it might be a good idea to wear rubber gloves,) fill a bath or
sink, depending on the size of the article to be felted. Add a small
squirt of liquid soap, this helps to open up the fibers and make them
more susceptible to the felting process, followed by the article.
3,Agitation
is now the keyword, swish your article around and rub the fabric
together in a washing action. Before you notice any shrinking, you may
see the stitches start to relax and it might actually look as if the
item is getting larger rather than smaller.However you will soon notice
the stitches begin to look less defined and fuzzy.
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4, Periodically take the article out, give it a squeeze and place it on a towel to see how the felting is progressing.If you're not making good progress then try shocking it with cold water and rinse before returning it to the hot water. This seems to help the fibers come together a little more easily.Remember that all yarns, even different colours of the same type, can felt differently, have patience if your yarn isn't felting immediately. |
 Felting by Hand by Anne Einset Vickrey is a very useful book for the beginner to hand felting with many easy to follow projects. |
5,If the water cools off empty you container and refill with hot water.
One of the hardest parts of felting is knowing when to quit, this really is a matter of personal choice. Items can be felted quite gently so that the stitch definition has just started to diminish but the piece looks solid, or they can be felted quite harshly and all definition disappears.
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If
you are felting a bag or another large project you might block it by
stuffing it with newspapers until it is the shape you want. Leave to dry
naturally. |
The big advantage of hand felting though is that it is very easy to check your work so you can stop exactly when you want. Felting by hand is also a great choice when you're trying to get to a specific dimension.
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Guarantee from The Knitting Wool Store:-
Remember, if you are not happy with your purchase then you may return your yarn to us for a full no quibble refund, ( postage not included.)
