Friday, February 6, 2015

The Joy of Felting

It has been good for me to set challenges to try to complete old projects and use up my cascading piles of art and craft supplies. It has motivated me to resurrect techniques that I have long ago set aside. This has brought with it some wonderful firsts and some new favorites.

It is a wonder it took me so long to try my hand at felting. I love yarn, I love trying new techniques, but somehow this one just seemed like to much work. Which is ironic considering I have had a few unintentional felting experiences. The first was a favorite pretty pink cardigan I inherited from a friend in high school, the second was a nice pair of socks. So clearly felting is not difficult to master if you can manage to do it with no more thought then it takes to wash a load of laundry.

So finally I took the plunge (literally, into the sink,) and gave hand felting a try. I had a blast and ended up with some really vibrant, dense and soft fabric.

The biggest thing to remember with felting (or fulling) is that it only works with animal fibers. Also lighter colors take longer. Once you have your knitted project worked up there are just a few simple steps to take you from the open airy fabric to a lovely thick, tight felt. There are three key components to felting: temperature, water and agitation.
You need hot water to felt, but in hand felting it is also important that it is not so hot as to cause you damage. When I worked up my squares I chose to use the kitchen sink and I mixed the hot tap water with about a quart of water I boiled on the stove. For the first few minutes I kept my hands out and just agitated the water (washing machine style) with a wooden spoon. Oh and don't forget to add the soap. I just used some liquid dish soap.

The first thing you notice after pushing the fabric around for a while is that it actually starts to stretch out and get bigger. Do not panic the hot water first relaxes the fibers before they tighten and close.

As soon as the water cooled enough that I could put my hands in without scalding them I increase the agitation by rubbing the fibers between my hands.

The whole process was lots of swirling, splashing, squishing and scrubbing. It was hot, wet and tons of fun. I also found that it was a fairly quick process, even though many of the articles I read made it seem like it would take a long time.

When the project is felted you have to rinse out the soap and wring out the water. I did my rinse with cold, then used old white kitchen towel and rolled up the felted work and squeezed out the water.










Once the fabric was only damp to the touch, I laid them out on dry towels and worked on straightening out the edges. I used straight pins to hold them. This is called blocking. By morning they were dry and ready to be turned into my Felted Needle Book.


I enjoyed this technique so much I am sure that you will be seeing more hand felted projects in the future.

Many blessings to you on this very fine but rainy day.--Kate

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