Has anyone tried felting with a front loading washer? Is it as effective as a top loading one? My concern was that the front loading one doesn’t agitate as much as the top loading. Anybody seen a difference?
I don’t know anything about felting but I did just go to a lecture where the speaker is a pattern designer and she makes felting pattterns for magazines etc and she said that the front load machine works just as good as a top load machine.
i have…just make sure it is super hot water, throw some heavy jeans and things (not linty things like towels) in the machine, put it in a zippered bag, and be patient. it can take longer but it should felt for you. As with top loading machines, some yarns felt better than others but they will felt.
make sure you can open your machine mid-cycle though. mine i can as long as it hasn’t started spinning. once it spins all i can do is wait, but some machines will lock you out as soon as the water starts to fill.
one thing I found with my last stubborn felting project is to use plenty of soap - soap that makes bubbles. I was using laundry detergent and not getting anywhere then someone here suggested Dawn dish detergent and it worked great. My LYS says Palmolive works best and she recommends removing it from the pillowcase to agitate what you are trying to felt rather than agitating yourself. Good Luck
I haven’t done a lot of felting – just 2 bags so far (I have a front loader.) Both bags felted fine but one took longer to felt than the other and I have to attribute that to the different yarn I used. I used Galway on that one and it took 3 cycles to get what I wanted. The other bag was made with Wool of the Andes from KnitPicks and that felted in one cycle.
Best,
Susan