I have a front load washing machine (Maytag Neptune) so it doesn’t have an agitator. I have had minimal success with felting knitted projects. Any tips out there??
Much thanks,
Diana
I don’t think the felting has anything to do with the agitator. It has to do with the piece for felting bumping around with other clothes. Put your piece in with a couple pairs of jeans and see what happens. It might take more than one wash to get it to the desired felting, but I think it should work.
There are various things that come together for felting. Hot water, agitation, the yarn, how tightly it’s knit, etc.
Tossing a couple pairs of jeans in will help a lot. Use very hot water, too. Some wool felts faster than others so it may need a couple tries.
The only problem I’ve heard with the front loaders is you can’t open it and check the progress like you can with a top loader. So if you do have a yarn that felts very quickly it could be a problem I guess.
I have felted in my front loader. It took 3 cycles. I threw in jeans and I think a towel too.
I wonder if a pair of sneakers would help? It may give you a pounding headache.
As an alternative, here is some info on hand felting in your sink
http://www.knittersreview.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=32383
Thanks so much for your suggestions! I am anxious to give felting a try.
Diana
:cheering:
I also have a front loader and I have not had any problems felting. My machine is a neptune also. I know someone mentioned they could not check their project while it was washing…with mine I can pause the cycle…wait for the door to unlock and then open the door. The water level is really low so you don’t have to worry about the water gushing out.
Good luck…
RMB
That’s great! Maybe it is only certain models or only older models that had that problem. Good thing to check though. 
“.wait for the door to unlock and then open the door.”
the dryer should know that I want in an NOT MAKE ME wait. Yes I do have a problem with patience - especially with machines.