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Felting Yarn

Felting yarn is wool without a superwash treatment that you can knit or crochet into slippers, a hat, a bag or a seat pad and then felt in the washing machine. During felting, the knitted fabric shrinks and becomes denser, turning into firm, warm felt. Schoeller + Stahl Filzi and Schachenmayr Wash + Filz-it! are made by their manufacturers specifically for washing machine felting, while DROPS Snow and DROPS Polaris are thick wool yarns that DROPS expressly recommends for felting. The manufacturer also recommends the finer merino yarn Malabrigo Worsted for felted projects.

How do you felt a knitted item in the washing machine?

During felting, warm water, detergent and friction cause the wool fibres to catch on one another, making the knitted fabric denser. DROPS recommends a regular wash programme lasting about 40 minutes at 40 °C without a prewash, rather than a wool programme. You then shape the item while it is wet and leave it to dry.

For Filzi and Wash + Filz-it!, the manufacturers state a shrinkage of 30 to 40 % at 40 °C. The result depends on your washing machine, the density of the knitted fabric and the size of the item, so knit a test swatch first, felt it and measure it. If an item has not felted enough, you can felt it again.

How do you choose felting yarn?

For felting, you need wool without a superwash treatment. This treatment protects wool against shrinking and felting, so treated yarn will not felt in the washing machine; acrylic, cotton and polyamide do not felt either. The yarns on this page differ mainly in thickness:

  • Schoeller + Stahl Filzi — 100 % wool, 50 g / 50 m, knitting needles 7 – 8 mm.
  • Schachenmayr Wash + Filz-it! — 100 % wool, 50 g / 50 m, knitting needles 8 – 9 mm.
  • DROPS Snow — 100 % wool, 50 g / 50 m, knitting needles 9 mm.
  • DROPS Polaris — 100 % wool, 100 g / 36 m, knitting needles 12 mm, for large items such as seat pads.
  • Malabrigo Worsted — 100 % merino wool, 100 g / 192 m, knitting needles 4.5 – 5.5 mm, a finer yarn for finer felt.

If you are looking for wool fleece for needle felting, see the Felting wool page. You can find the full range of yarn for knitting and crochet in the Knitting Yarn category.

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