Tips on Felting

To Felt a Crochet or Knit Item

When a crocheted or knitted item is felted, the stitches do not show, so it resembles fabric. Things can be felted in different ways, depending on how much you want the stitches to disappear, or how much you want your purse (or item) to shrink.
I'm showing felted purses, an ipod/phone case, a scarf and 2 different felted bowls.

The brown felted shoulderbag is one I designed for my book, Positively Crochet!, published in 2007. This book which has 50 projects of garments and accessories, has been a best seller and continues to be very popular today. Projects are still stylish! You can see them all on my Ravelry designer page here.

Different washing machines and water temperatures may also cause an item to felt and shrink differently. Some people may only need to put their item through the wash once, where as some machine’s may require you to put it through a cycle 4 times.

At left is my iPod case, also in Positively Crochet! Its quick and easy, with a pocket in back for your ear buds, key or money.

One of the most important things you need to know is that you HAVE to use wool yarn or other animal fiber in order for the felting process to work. Otherwise, you will just be wasting your time.

Before and After Felting

Instructions for Felting                                 
1. Place the item inside a zippered pillowcase, and put into washing machine on lowest water level and hottest setting.

Felted Bowl

If water is not hot enough, turn up heat or pour boiling water in machine as it fills up. Place tennis shoes (or tennis balls) in washer to help with agitation. This really helps with the felting process.


2. Add 1 tablespoon Ivory Snow soap or Dawn dishwashing liquid and 1/4 cup baking soda.

Kep scrolling, but first I want to tell you about my felted bowl! It was such a fun project and I love the outcome. I'm not sure I even wrote down the pattern, but if I can find it I'll post it as a free pattern. I believe I made a beannie hat shape that was much larger than a regular hat. After it was felted, but still wet, I found a bowl that it fit over tightly. If its loose, it won't dry right. I made different colored circles in different sizes in case I wanted to make it polka dotted.

Update:
I just looked up Felted projects on Ravelry and found 30 pages of projects here. I found patterns for just about anything you can think of, including bowls like mine! I hadn't seen anyone else do that.

3. You may have to repeat this process 1-2 more times depending on how you want it to look. Rinse in cold water; reshape and let spin to take out excess water.

Keep scrolling, but first, I want you to see the Houndstooth purse I designed to be in my book Crochet That Fits, a book with 33 garmrnts and accessories, voted "Best Crochet Pattern Book of 2008".  The one shown in the book is a slate blue and gray color. This purse is also lined and has peltex, a stiffener for a structured feel.

Felted Dish - my free pattern, not posted yet!

4. Placing piece in sink with ice water at end of cycle will help it to felt. Block purse in this manner: Before the felting process you should have a box with the dimensions of your bag ready with a plastic bag over it.

I usually have more then 1 box ready in case the purse doesn’t end up the size I expect. Immediately place wet purse onto the box, making sure it’s a tight fit. Let it air dry completely for 2-3 days.

The scarf, also in Positively Crochet!, is much longer before being felted. But see the difference in the stitches? The sideways cluster stitches ended up forming into little balls on the felted scarf. It's a very quick and easy project. In fact, its beginner level. See before and after felting below!

This is the way I showed the scarf in one of my fashion shows

To read more about felting see the book, Felted Crochet, by Jane Davis.

Checking Your Gauge - Why it's so important

When making a scarf, afghan or purse, gauge is not as important, but when making garments, gauge is of utmost importance. I cannot stress how important this is. You do not want your garment meant for an adult to end up fitting a 5 year old. It can easily happen. Work up a 4”x 4” swatch before beginning any garment, measuring the gauge in the center of the swatch. To do that, you need to place straight pins at the beginning and end of the designated number of stitches, or rows (see photo below), then count the number of stitches between the pins. If your gauge does not match, keep trying a larger or smaller hook until you get the correct gauge. If you want your project to fit or look like the one in the photo, your gauge must match the gauge given with the pattern. Check your garment often, because when you lay it down and come back later, your gauge could be quite different. It happens to everyone. They say that when we are stressed, we tend to crochet tighter, and I can attest to that!

Example of getting the correct gauge: 
 13 dc = 3"

Note:
If you have more than 13 dc sts to 3", that means your sts are too tight (or too small) and you need to use a larger hook, but if you have less than 13 dc sts to 3", your stitches are too big (or too loose) and you need to use a smaller hook.
The swatch sample in the photo below has 13 stitches between the straight pins (3")

Changing Yarn Colors

If you follow this diagram, you won't even be able to tell where the color changes. This is showing how to change colors when you are using a sc, dc, tr, or dtr, because the last step will have 2 loops left on the hook, but if you are using a hdc, htr or hdtr, the last step will have 3 loops on the hook. So with those sts, you would be pulling the new yarn color through 3 loops on the hook. (instead of 2 loops shown in the diagram below)

How to work Half Triple (htr) and Half Double Treble (hdtr)

I'm sure you've heard of the half double crochet (hdc), which forms kind of a bridge between a sc and dc. When I was working on Crochet That Fits in 2006, and making garments with my Graduated Stitch Method (trademarked), I didn't want to go straight from a dc to a tr, or go from a tr to a dtr, so I said why not do a htr and a hdtr, as a bridge to the next st? ? I had never heard of those sts like I had heard of hdc, so I asked some older crochet designers (legends in crochet) if they had heard of those sts. One of them was Jean Leinhauser who has numerous books and was conducted into the Crochet Hall of Fame after her death.  Btw, I may have been the last person to talk to her on the phone right before she died. She was publishing one of my shawl designs and we were talking about that. Then later that day I heard she had a heart attack. She was an amazing woman and SO supportive and complementary of my work. She and the other designers I asked about these stitches had been crocheting more than 50 yrs, so they helped me a great deal when they said they'd heard of the sts maybe once but also said you can't find crochet patterns with these sts. (bridge sts I call them) 

Below are instructions on how to work some of the taller sts that are used in Crochet That Fits. You may or may not be familiar with the triple (treble) crochet and the double treble, but even if you are experienced in crochet, you may have never heard of a half triple crochet or a half double treble. These 2 stitches help tremendously in making shaped garments. I'll try to post diagrams of these stitches later. 

Update: (2017) Since I came up with these sts in 2006 and they were published in my book in 2007, I'm sure a lot more people have heard of them and used them in their work. You can't really copyright crochet stitches, but it would be nice if those using them would give me the credit for coming up with them. Its crochet etiquette :)

To work half double crochet (hdc): yo once, insert hook from front to back in stitch or space indicated, yo and pull up a lp, yo and pull through all 3 lps on hook.

To work half triple crochet (htr): yo twice, insert hook from front to back in st or sp indicated, yo and draw yarn through st, (4 lps on hook), yo and draw yarn through 2 lps on hook, (3 lps on hook), yo and draw yarn through all 3 lps on hook.

To work triple crochet (tr): Yo hook (twice), insert hook from front to back in st or sp indicated, yo, draw yarn through st (4 lps on hook), yo, draw yarn through 2 lps on hook (3 lps remain on hook), yo, draw yarn through 2 lps on hook (2 lps remain on hook), yo, draw through 2 lps on hook

To work half double treble (hdtr): yo three times, insert hook from front to back st or sp indicated, yo and pull up a lp (five lps on hook), yo and draw through two lps, (four lps on hook), yo and draw through two lps (three loops on hook.), yo and draw through three lps on hook.

To work double treble (dtr):yo three times, insert hook from front to back in st or sp indicated, yo and pull up a lp (five lps on hook), yo and draw through two lps, (four lps on hook), yo and draw through two lps (three loops on hook.), yo and draw through two lps. (two lps on hook.) , yo and draw through two lps.