How to Felt Crocheted Yarn
If you have mastered the basic crochet stitches and you own a washing machine or a sink, you can felt the items you create out of crochet. Felting fuses the yarn together to make it look like solid fabric; it makes your crocheted creations sturdier, but it also shrinks them. Felting is ideal for making crocheted accessories, like flowers or bags, because size isn't strictly important for those types of projects.
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Things You'll Need
- Wool yarn
- Crochet hook
- Large-eye blunt needle
- Pillow case
- Washer and dryer
- Detergent
- Sink
- Needle and thread
Instructions
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Crochet an item. For this example, you might want to crochet a bag and then felt it. The best way to do this is to crochet the body of the bag without stitching it together. So crochet a large rectangle, and later you can fold it to make a clutch-style bag.
Use wool yarn for any project you want to felt; animal fibers, like wool, felt together while other fibers, such as acrylics or plant-based yarns, will not felt. Keep your stitches small but loose by using a worsted-weight yarn and a size I or J crochet hook.
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When you finish crocheting your rectangle, weave in the ends using a large-eye blunt needle. Place the finished item inside a pillow case and tie the opening shut.
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Put the pillow case into hot water and agitate it. The easiest way to do this is to put the pillow case into a hot water load in your washing machine; using the pillow case will protect your machine and any other clothes you're washing from getting yarn fuzz all over them. If you do not have a washing machine, you can put the pillow case into a sink filled with hot water and a little bit of detergent instead. You will have to supply the agitation, so let the pillow case soak and then scrub it around the sink with your hands.
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Remove the crocheted item from the pillow case to see if the felting process is complete. You will know the item has felted if you can no longer see the individual crocheted stitches and the yarn has fused together. If you can still identify individual stitches, you will need to repeat the felting process until you can't see them any more.
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Let the item dry, either by laying it out in the air or using a clothes dryer. Now you can sew the felted crochet using a needle and thread to make a purse. You can even cut and trim it to your desired size; since the item has felted, the stitches will not come undone if you cut them.
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References
- Photo Credit crochet image by Lytse from Fotolia.com
