What do I need to know before I start?

Here’s a quick refresher of the basics of felting…

The first rule of felting is to use a yarn made up of animal fibres, such as sheep’s wool or alpaca. Don’t use a ‘superwash’ wool because it will have been treated to resist felting. If the ball band states ‘hand wash in cold water’, that’s a good sign that it will felt. The secret to felting is that animal fibres have cuticles along the length, which open when wet and hot. Soap adds lubrication, allowing the fibres to run over each other more easily, while agitation or rubbing helps the fibres to mat together.

You can use any yarn weight for felting, but be aware that the process makes a thick fabric even thicker. Simple stitches work best, such as double or treble crochet – some colourwork and textured patterns will look good, but most stitch definition disappears during felting. The best hook size to use depends on the yarn and stitches you choose. With double crochet, use a larger hook size than usual for the weight of yarn so the fibres have more space to rub together; treble stitches, meanwhile, are naturally more loose, so use a standard hook size for the yarn weight.

The key to felting is experimentation, so make test swatches to see how different yarns and stitches look after felting and therefore which one is best for the project. We used a tumble dryer to felt various swatches – in our experiments, double crochet felt (Swatch 1) was thicker and denser than treble felt, but it had a tendency to curl and become distorted in shape. Treble felt (Swatch 2) was flatter and quicker to crochet because it had fewer stitches. The 100% wool yarn (Swatch 2) felted quickly into a thick, dense fabric, while the 100% alpaca yarn (Swatch 3) took longer to felt but was softer. The alpaca felt still had some stitch definition and tiny holes, which meant it had good stretch and drape.