Question on felting

[ava]

I have seen lots of felted things on Etsy, and seen a starter kit on ebay, and read some conversations about felting here. The info combined leads me to ask:

 

Is there more than one kind of felting?

 

All the conversations here are about washing a crocheted item to felt it. Lots of the things I've seen on Etsy are very small and don't look like they started out crocheted, and the starter kit on ebay came with a wooden dowel, a mat, and a net rather than a hook or needle of any sort.

 

So I'm proceeding with the hypothesis that there are at least two significantly different kinds of felting. Can anyone confirm this, and describe the differences between them?

[angieInCA]

There are two different things going on here that are basically the same thing. There is felting and then there is fulling.

 

When we are talking about putting a piece of crocheted or knitted work in hot water and shrinking it and creating a felted item, the process is actually called fulling but many people call it felting.

 

Felting actually uses the fibers or wool before it is spun into yarn or thread and fulling is when you apply the same aggitation or pressure or moisture to a woven (i.e. crochet or knit) fabric

 

Somewhere along the line people started calling fulling (with woven fabric) felting because it creates a wool felted fabric. They even have books written on felting when the actual process is fulling

 

I know this all seems a bit confusing but both processes cause the scales of the wool to open up and attach to one another to create a felted fabric.

 

Definitions from

Britannica

Fulling

Process that increases the thickness and compactness of woven or knitted wool by subjecting it to moisture, heat, friction, and pressure until shrinkage of 10–25% is achieved. Shrinkage occurs in both the warp and weft see weaving), producing a smooth, tightly finished fabric that is light, warm, and relatively weather proof. A common example is loden cloth, first produced in Austria in the 16th century.

 

Felting

Process that mats together fleece (raw wool) by subjecting it to moisture, heat, friction, and pressure. Sheep hair have scales that open somewhat when wet; layering hairs in a parallel fashion and applying some form of agitation cause the hairs to tighten together in a solid mat. The result is a lightweight, windproof, and water-resistant fabric that has been used for millennia to make hats, boots, and tents. Light felting is sometimes done to woven or knitted wool, a process known as fulling, to create a thicker and softer fabric.

[ava]

Thanks Angie, that explains a lot!

 

I've been doing more reading this morning and discovered the existence of "needle felting"...is this considered to be a different technique from the felting you described above, or just a variation?

 

Needle felting sounds the most interesting to me...can anyone suggest a good book about it?

[smokeyp81]

Needle felting is a lot of fun. I bought a kit off of ebay to try it. I usually just add embelishments to my felted items (purses and hats) but there are a lot of other things you can do with needle felting. This site shows how to needle felt a lady bug. If you google needle felting instructions, you will come up with a ton of pages to look at. This forum site has a lot of info also. Have fun....once you start, you will be addicted!

[ava]

Smokey, is this the kit you got? If so would you recommend it?

 

Thanks for the links!

[JCB]

There are basically 3 types of felting. The one which most folks here to is to crochet or knit something and then felt it in hot water in a washing machine. You could felt the completed object manually in hot water also, but it's a lot of physical work.

 

Then, there is wet felting where you take strips of wool roving and layer them cross-wise, saturate them with hot soapy water, roll them up and sort of roll them back and forth until they bond to each other and become a piece of fabric. You can then use that fabric to make wearables... hats, scarves, etc.

 

The third method, as others mentioned, is needle felting (dry felting). Some folks needle felt onto other objects, like an already felted purse or a jean jacket or even on a piece of plain felt (batt) to use as a wall hanging. A lot of people do 3 dimensional needle felting and make small animals... dogs, teddy bears, fairies, etc. If you put needle felted into an ebay search engine you'll find some examples.

 

There's a fairly active Yahoo group for needle felting, and they have a gallery with lots of pictures of their work.

 

Joan

[smokeyp81]

This is the seller I used. The kit only includes needles and roving. I had the basic idea from the web sites I had read. I would recommend them. They were super fast to ship also.