the purse i knitted from wool has been in the washer agitating now for over 45 minutes & all i have is a lot of wet, stretchy wool. it hasn't shrunk one bit. i'll admit i didn't do a sample swatch, but still...... i even took it out & shocked it w/cold water! then put it thru another cycle - would putting it in the dryer help shrink it?
2007-03-24 12:04:01 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Games & Recreation ➔ Hobbies & Crafts
As the rest of the commenters said, if you used superwash wool, "washable" wool, or a wool blend with high synthetic content, it will not felt. Also, is the yarn a light color? The bleaching process can prevent the wool from felting. Did you put a bit of soap in the water? It facilitates the felting process.
A swatch would have been a well worth your time and effort. I described how to create and measure a swatch for felting in my answer to your previous question about machine felting.
2007-03-25 02:53:01 · answer #1 · answered by bogiebogie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am pretty sure that you must have superwash*[1] wool or that it might not even be wool. Also It's suggested that whatever yarn you are using to felt that it have at least a 50% wool content*[2], but 75-100% would be much better. (i've never felted before.) Since the packaging might not say straight out if it might be superwash or not, look at the care instructions on the yarn band. This info page on yarn care symbols may be helpful. http://www.lionbrand.com/yarnCare.html A non-superwash wool yarn should have a hand wash cold symbol and a do not tumble dry symbol or a dry flat symbol*[3].
just in case.
[1]Superwash is just a term for machine washable wool.
[2] Supposedly wool yarns with only partial wool content will felt, except only the wool bits will really felt and I believe that you might end up with a much different fabric texture than you might expect out of a felted fabric.
[3] A dry flat symbol should be a box with a horizontal line through it. I can't believe that the symbol page doesn't have that one on it.
2007-03-24 22:05:12 · answer #2 · answered by anjelawolfe 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you used a wool/synthetic blend, or Superwash wool, it won't felt. The felting process occurs with the water,soap and agitation, so the dryer wouldn't help. Check your yarn fiber content......and did you use a soap like Ivory with it? Hot water first then cold? I hate to do samples too, but they do save you from wasting a lot of time and yarn!
2007-03-24 20:08:19 · answer #3 · answered by LaZgurl 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Honey, if it hasn't even begun to felt by now you probably aren't going to be able to felt it. While the fabric will feel stretchy, somewhat, after felting when wet if it hasn't started to shrink you probably have a yarn that doesn't felt. Get a label from it and send me an e-mail. I'll look at the yarn and tell you if it's totally hopeless. However, this said, some wool yarns, noteably Noro, can be miserably difficult to felt and can take forever, but they do felt.
2007-03-25 13:53:24 · answer #4 · answered by mickiinpodunk 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess you could try and put it through the dryer. Also, sometimes if it's white wool (You did use wool, right? It HAS to be 100% wool to felt, nothing else in it) the bleaching may have really been hard on the fibers and that will cause it not to felt.
2007-03-24 19:20:52 · answer #5 · answered by Be Still and know He's God 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋