I've knit two pair of the FiberTrends felted clogs for my Olympic challenge. (Still one to go.) I've tried felting these two pair twice, both times to no avail. It seems my front-loading washing machine is too gentle. So I took them over to my friend Nancy, who has a top loading machine, but her fancy Fischer & Paykel (sp?) washing machine has a gentle agitator, and the clogs didn't felt.
So I took them home, filled a dishpan with cold water and a bit of woolite, and set to one of the clogs with my hands. I remembered, maybe a bit too late, that keeping my hands in cold water often gives me a migraine. So I switched to a potato masher. But still no felt.
I guess I could turn them into clown shoes, but I already have clown shoes, and I really want felted clogs.
Any suggestions?
And I close with a picture sent to me by my friend, Ben. (Ben, husband of Nancy with the fancy schmancy washing machine.) Ben offers this as proof that dogs can read.
8 comments:
Have you tried hot water? Or shocking it from cold water into hot water? It's helped for me in the past.
I agree, try switching it from hot to cold water and back again. Do a hot wash, a cold rinse, and throw them in the dryer on high heat. If that doesn't work, you can come to my building to use the washer and dryer, but it costs $2 a load.... :( Oh wait, Jackie has a washer and dryer! Hey, you should appeal to your bitches and see if someone can help you out!
Thank yous o much for the advise. I don't know why I was so set on cold water. Maybe out of fear the colors would run. But if they do, so what? Better than having 2 more pair of clown shoes.
Where would I be without my Bitches?
Bless your heart, Aiden, but the gals here are right. You won't be able to felt them that way. Use hot water, a slippery detergent (Woolite will work), and throw a heavy towel or pair of jeans in with them to give them something to rub against. Let them agitate in the hot for about five-seven minutes, then take them out, squish the extra water out, and drown them in very cold water. Slosh them around and against each other for a while until they've had that shock Beth mentioned, and then take them out and test them. If they've not felted down as much as you want, repeat the process. Just be careful, because sometimes they can look like they're not doing anything and when you decide to let it run an extra ten minutes, you find you've got something that would fit Thumbellina.
Good luck. :-)
Rhonna
Another thing that worked for me is to slip a pair of shoes inside the slippers before I start to felt them....
Oh, and just go to the Laundrymat...
Good luck
You might try adding several tablespoons of baking soda to the water as well. Wool seems to felt better in an alkaline environment -- something to do with the scales lifted in the alkaline. Give the clogs a really good rinse once they're down to size: protein fibres can be damaged with exposure to alkalines, so a rinse, with maybe a glog of vinegar, would be a good idea.
And yes, hot water. Whenever I felt anything, it's a good ten minutes of agitation on the "normal" cycle before I check for size changes. You might want to check it sonner, though.
I will 2nd & 3rd the votes for the laundromat! I also toss in jeans or a pair of old shoes, but not towels. I have found that the towels shed towel bits into my felting and they are horrible to get out!
I have a regular, top-loading machine that will felt anything but I still go to the pay-per-use machines because the thought of all of that fuzz that comes off during felting clogging up my machine ... no thank you.
Good luck!
Felting is another thing I have never tried, so I guess I will add a felting item to my list of things to do.
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