OldHairTwister: here's a couple processes:
Next, fill the washing machine with HOT water, agitate on the longest cycle (I do not use detergent, it doesn’t rinse out very well), rinse in cold water and dry in the dryer under regular heat. Remove from dryer right away and use.
The wool will be machine washed to felt it. First, sort out colors that you suspect will bleed (red is notorious!) and wash them separately.
*The longer you agitate the wool in hot water, the tighter the weave will get. If you have a piece of wool that didn’t felt well, run it through another complete cycle. Wool that is partially synthetic, will not felt well. The synthetic is added to keep it from shrinking so avoid words like nylon, 80/20, 10% other fibers, synthetic, or any word that makes you think it has other fibers in it than pure wool.
Choose garments that are 100% wool or blends of 80% wool and 20% nylon or polyester. Avoid worsted wools; they tend to ravel, even when felted. (You can recognize worsted wool because it feels hard and flat. It is used most often for suits.) Also stay away from loosely woven wool fabric because it may not shrink up in the washing and drying process.
You may want to wash your wool at the laundromat; otherwise, skim the loose fibers off the surface several times during each load so the drain doesn't clog. Wash on your longest and hottest cycle with a cold rinse and mild detergent.
Drying the wool in your home dryer is fine if you clean the filter several times during the cycle. Dry on your longest and hottest drying cycle. Take the wool pieces out as soon as they are dry and fold immediately to avoid wrinkles.
My Mom always talked about ‘boiled wool’ Here’s how I do it
• Sort the wool fabrics you want to felt by color, just like you would when washing clothes. Match the size of the pan to the amount of wool. A word of caution……….some colors of some wool fabric do bleed color like other fabrics. Adding a Color Catcher sheet won’t work with this process so sort your colors accordingly.
• Put your wool pieces in the pot and fill it with enough warm/hot tap water to cover the wool. Place it on the stove and crank up the heat. You don’t want the flames whipping up around the pan but set it like you would to bring water to a boil
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• When the water comes to a rapid boil, reduce the temperature a bit but keep the water boiling. Continue to boil for about 7 minutes, stirring a couple of times. While you’re waiting, fill one side of your sink with cold water.
• After 7 minutes of boiling, remove the wool from the pot and place it in your sink of cold water. You can use a sturdy pair of tongs to grab the wool. I got out one of my big mixing bowls and pulled with wool from the pot, into the bowl and then over to my sink.
• Squeeze the cold water out of your wool pieces and dry in the dryer on high heat until completely dry. You might want to check the lint trap once during the drying cycle to remove excess lint.
• Nice tight felted wool ready to use. You can also use this method to felt old wool clothing or sweaters you sometimes find in thrift stores too. Just remember to remove zippers, buttons, etc.
How do you know your wool is felted properly? Answer: you will be able to cut it and no unravelling or running will occur. You may have to wash and dry 2-5 times to achieve your desired degree of felting.