Felted clogs ---> sooooooo dissapointed

General Knitting
1

I’m am sooo dissapointed and I dont know what to do :frowning:

I knitted the felted clogs in a large lady because i have a size 10 foot , and i felted them last night for 1 hour in the washer and they will not shrink length wise… they are sooo big they would fit a size 13/14 … and i dont know what to do ???
has this happened to anyone else… the clogs look great and they felted and shrunk perfectly on the width but they kept the same length …

i tried putting them in the dryer today for 10 minutes but no change, what to do what to do…

2

How horrible ! I am just starting on my clogs…what kind of yarn did you use?

3

I used 100% wool from Ístex Álafoss Lopi … ahh if anyone has any ideas on how i can get them to shrink lenght wise please let me know… i had 2 pairs of jeans in the wash with them and i had them in a pillow case the whole time… i could wear them but i’d probably trip over them since they are soooo big :frowning:

4

Are they only too long in the back? Perhaps you could trim them down a bit and then try felting them a bit more to secure the ends more. How frustrating. Did you do a test swatch felting them first? Always a good idea when sizing matters. You take your 4" gauge test and felt it and then remeasure it to see how it felts. Many wools don’t felt evenly width and heighth which you can determine after test felting. Then you can make corrections in either making something more narrow or less long. (or vice versa)

5

Have you seen the instructions for felting on the pattern? Tried a swatch? Are you sure you used a feltable wool? Have you tried felting it by hand lengthwise?

6

I had the same problem when I made mine. I ended up putting them through another washer cycle with HOT HOT water and then drying them for 1/2 hour. They are still big but they felted enough to use. If I make another pair I will make a smaller size.

7

SO you are using hot water? I’m sure you are if it’s felting at all. I had A LOT of trouble getting mine to the right size. I let it go thru the entire cycle in the maching and it just wasn’t working. SO i felted it again!!! Just put it thru again, that’s what i did and it shrunk the most the second time around. I also was putting the knitting in the machine once it was full of water and i’ve found that putting it in under the hot water when it was running to fill the washer made it felt better. DOn 't be dissapointed–just wash it again!!! Make sure you don’t have to much other stuff in the machine with it though. THis just happend to me last weekend. Have fun! You can do it.

8

Try felting with just the clogs in your machine - nothing else. The only thing with doing it this way is you have to watch things really closely to make sure they dont’ get too small. Good luck! :knitting:

9

This happened to me with my latest pair using some yarn I got at a fair that I’d never felted with before. They felted into a nice firm fabric, it was just too long for my foot! Is the fabric as felted down as it will go? I like really firm fabric. I ended up giving my pair to DH. He put them on still damp to mold them to his feet, and they fit him perfectly (I made the ladies size 8 and they fit his men’s size 10 1/2 foot).

Knitpicks WOTA never gave me any problems.

10

You can always try sticking them in your dryer. You can felt that way, too.

11

Thanks everyone !!!
I washed them in the dryer for about 30-40 minutes the first time !!!
I will try again this weekend !!! I was using hot water on the washer… I might try going to my mom’s and trying it there - maybe the water is hotter or the washer will felt them better :slight_smile: wish me luck !!!

12

Make sure you use a low water level, hottest water available, a capful or two of something like Woolite, and a pair of jeans. Felting requires agitation and friction to work best. I also don’t run anything through the entire cycle. I let it go 5 min, check it and then reset for another 5, etc.

13

Jan you say to use a low water level? I was using a HIGH water level and cringing thinking about the wasted of water! That’s great! This is such a great website to learn new things, i don’t know what i would do without it.

14

Yes, you won’t get as much friction/agitation on high water levels. I usually use the lowest or the next to lowest. :wink:

15

Meghan,
I made about 15 pairs of clogs last summer and found the sizes to be big. I also made a bag out of lopi yarn and found it took longer to felt. My hot water is not all that hot, I know you can change the temp on you tank, but that is too complicated for me :teehee: So I tried boiling a kettle of water and adding it to my wash on lowest water level and that helped. Hope you have better luck getting them to felt to size!