argh.

[phinnia]

This is entertainingly problematic: the bag-o' doom that was supposedly supposed to felt down to pencil case size is (a) not felting entirely nicely by hand and (2) not shrinking at all. So I have this enormous floppy half-felted stripey misshapen thing ...
Is it even possible to felt in coin-operated washers? (Top loading of course). And what the holy hell am I going to do with this thing if it doesn't shrink?? I suppose if nothing else I can still put a zipper in it and use it for a pillow cover. :-D

Comments

[doubletake.livejournal.com]

Well, the felting action is caused by a combination of wool fibers, heat, water, and agitation. The hot water causes the wool to crinkle/curl up, and the agitation makes the crinkly fibers sort of...ratchet...together more and more tightly.

So if it's not getting smaller, I can see three possible reasons:
Not enough heat,
Not enough agitation,
/or/ not enough wool fibers in your yarn.

If your yarn is part acrylic/silk/nylon...that part won't crinkle up, and your item won't get smaller. :(

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

It's 100% wool, so #3 is not a factor. I'd say probably a combination of #1 and #2, given that our sink's excuse for "hot" water is not exactly "hot", and the rubbing it in between towels would have probably worked better if I had had bigger/more towels to work with.