aggitate twice before rinsing?

[Lunatic84]

Ok, so I am litterally in the middle of my first felting attempt. Do I aggitate it twice in the hot water before I rinse it in the cold water? Or do I aggitate and rinse a few times concurrently? I hope someone can help, and fast !!

thanks, Leanne

[smokeyp81]

Has it shrunk to the size you want? If it has after the first aggitate, I would stop.

[Around74]

There is no set time on the felting process. I let it agitate and check on my project every 5 minutes. Once it is the size I want it to be then I rinse in the kitchen sink with cold water. I do not let it spin in the washer because the first time I did it spun it and stretched it all out of shape and the project never looked right after.

[sherryzzz]

Once the washer has gone through the agitation cycle, but before it drains, I usually reset and let it go through one more agitation cycle. I put my projects in a zippered pillow case to keep the lint out of my washer and add a couple of pairs of jeans or a few old towels (don't add towels if you're not going to put your projects in closed pillow cases - your project will get all the lint from the towels embedded in the felting - it's just a mess!) I also add baking soda to the agitation so that it will felt better. Then I let it go through the rinse cycle and drain but then, before it spins out, I take the project out of the pillow case and I pull it in to shape and smooth it out. Then I press it against the side of the washer tub and let it finish spinning (you can leave small items like handles, etc., in the pillow case). I've never had any problems with using the spin cycle on the washer as long as I pull and smooth the item into shape first.

 

After the spin cycle, I again pull and smooth the project into shape. To dry, I form it over cereal boxes (or whatever fits) covered with plastic bags and let it sit - it usually takes 2 days to dry. You can also stuff the boxes with plastic bags to make them sturdier.