How to knit and Felt - A simple test

I always do this quick and  simple test when I have a new yarn to work with.

It gives me a very good idea of how well a yarn will felt.

First I take a length of yarn in my hands about 2 metres is usually enough.

Next I wet the yarn in hot water and add a little soap, not dish washing liquid, just ordinary hand soap, bar or liquid is fine.

 now the interesting bit -

 I rub the yarn in my hands quite vigourosly, at first nothing happens, just wet wool feeling a bit stretchy, 

Then as if by magic it starts to change. the yarn no longer slips over itself, but feels like it is sticking. I can feel the yarn shrinking and matting together. Quite sudenly I have a piece of felt in my hands! 

Step by step guide using different yarn.
Yarn sample 1 

Firstly I'll show you what happens with mohair yarn.

 A length of yarn ready to start the test

  Mohair has a lot of whispy bits. this gives it a lot of bulk when it is dry.

This yarn felts really quickly

Once wet the mohair almost disappears, and the whispy bits felt together almost instantly.

 The finished test

After a very short time I have a dense ball of wet felt.

This yarn felted so quickly and so densely, I could tell that it would not be useful for bag making. I would need an enoromously large bag to start with and if I felted it in the washing machine the bag would felt into a solid shapeless ball.

Yarn sample 2

Tapestry wool 

This yarn is available in so many lovely colours.

 Again take a 2 metre length.

 

 Wet it in hot water with a little soap.

This yarn felts  slower than the mohair I can feel the yarn changing in my hands. The dye runs a lot with this yarn, If I use multiple colours for a project I shall have to consider how the colours will change.

The finshed test.

This yarn has felted well, the strands have almost dissapeared,and the felt feels firm which will give the bag some strength. This yarn will hand felt very well. I have used tapestry wool succesfully to make small pots and purses.

Yarn Sample 3

 Icelandic Wool

 This will knit up very quickly.

I only need a short length of this chunky yarn.

 Shortly after starting to felt the yarn.

This yarn is felting well, but not quickly. It takes more effort and feels quite dense already, i'm going to felt it for a bit longer and see what happens.

Final stage

I'm happy with this sample, the strands have matted together well,and the felt is dense and strong. Due to the time taken to achieve the felt I'm confident that a washing machine felted bag will work well.

Sample 4 

Just to show what happens if you try to felt a non wool yarn! 

lots or rubbing, 

Results in no change, just wet yarn!

I hope this tutorial is helpful to you, I always do this simple test, it saves a lot of frustraton and wasted time when I knit a sample square