Question? Loose or tight stitch

[marnie413]

Is it better when you are felting something to make loose stitches or tighter ones? I have never felted anything and would like to give it a try.

[natalie058]

looser stitches = more agitation = better felting

[superfurry]

i think it depends on the effect you're after. if you want a solid piece of fabric when you're done i'd go tight. i did some felting experiments with recycled yarn from a frogged sweater using plain sc. because my tension is generally on the looser side and there was a kink left in the yarn the samples actually grew rather than shrank on fulling (thought he yarn was properly felted together) and left a grid of holes. i rather liked the effect but it wasn't going to be much use for my intended purpose (super-warm gloves).

 

so i'd suggest making up a few swatches and see which one suits your purpose best. if you don't want to run a whole wash cycle for a couple of samples you can always felt by hand, squeezing soap through the samples and alternating water between as hot as you can stand and very cold (you can actually feel all the fibres contracting together when you put it in the cold, it's fun ). while this won't help with gauging how long you need to run the finished item in the machine it will tell you how your particular fibre/stitch combo reacts to the felting process.

 

hth.