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Phone
(540) 337-3770
Store Hours
Mon, Tue, Wed & Fri: 10:00am-5:00pm
Thursday: 10:00am-8:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am-3:00pm
Sunday: Closed
Address
2421 Stuarts Draft Highway
Stuarts Draft, VA 24477
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Frequently Asked Questions
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<- Back to the List of FAQ Categories
Felting
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How do I felt a project?
1. Place your garment in a zippered pillowcase or garment bag. This will save your washer as most are not designed to handle the fibers the garment will shed.
2. Placing a pair of old tennis shoes, old jeans, or tennis balls in the washer will help the agitation. Make sure not to use anything that will shed lint – your project will pick it up.
3. Select the smallest washer load size and set the wash for hot water.
4. Add a small amount of detergent to the washer (2 Tbls of liquid detergent) .
5. In addition to the detergent in the water, add ¼ cup of baking soda .
6. Do NOT let the washer rinse and spin..
7. Run the washer for about 10 minutes, and then check on your project about every 5 minutes. If you check and see that your project looks larger, don’t panic. It will grow in size just before it begins to shrink .
8. Keep felting until you are satisfied with the look of your project..
9. Hand-rinse your project in cold water. This stops the felting process .
10. Roll your project in a towel to remove excess water .
11. To shape the bottom of a project, use a bag filled with rice or gravel. You can use plastic grocery bags to “stuff” your project to help it hold shape while it dries
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What yarn felts best?
Wool is the best felting fiber. All natural fibers will felt; such as alpaca, mohair, angora, llama, and cashmere. However, every fiber felts at a different rate, as does every yarn. Light colors in wool are not known to do well with felting, due to the dyeing process. However, light colors in alpaca felt well. (Alpaca fleece has such a large range of color, little dyeing is necessary to obtain white yarn.)
Wool felts at the quickest rate, so if you are making a substitution in a pattern from wool to, say, alpaca, make sure you check a swatch before you complete your project.
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What about using a non-felting yarn with a felting yarn?
If you are going to use a non-felting yarn, such as a novelty, in your project, we recommend working it together with a strand of the felting yarn used for your project. This will ensure that the non-felting yarn will look uniform with the rest of your project.
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Should I mix yarns in a project?
We do not recommend that you use different manufacturers for a single project. For uniformity in felting, you would be best to choose different colors from the same producer. If you are knitting two strands together at the same time, using two yarns from two different companies would be safe.
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Do I need to test a swatch first?
It is always a good idea to test felt a swatch before felting. After working a swatch, trace it on paper. When complete, retrace the felted piece. You can measure exactly how much you yarn will shrink. Every yarn felts differently. If you knit the same size swatch, but use a different needle size, the end product will most likely be a different size.
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Can I continue to felt a project after it has dried?
If you are not happy with your project after you have felted it and allowed it to dry, first soak the project in water with vinegar. This will help to open the fibers. Let it set for at least ½ hour, and then do the felting process again.
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