Stuffed animal felting

#1

Lately my cat has been playing with a beat-up stuffed animal lizard we got at 6 flags. During the Daytona 500 I swiped kitty’s lizard and made him a new one. I’m not too sure he is thrilled with the yarn I used. Poor kitty got green acrylic yarn… I thought that would make it last longer.

So, what I am thinking about right now is felting him a lizard. I have never felted before and I have a couple questions about it.

To felt a stuffed animal, do you just knit the body and then felt it, and then stuff and sew it up ???

When felting something does it shrink alot??? Should I make the lizard bigger in case it shrinks ?

Thanks a bunch

And Felix thanks you too :heart:

#2

Here is another thread about felting stuffed animals. The general consensus seems to be that it’s a good idea to felt before stuffing to prevent the stuffing from getting lumpy. Felting does make things shrink, so be prepared to make your pre-felted lizard larger than you want the finished product. If you’re really concerned about size, you could knit and felt a swatch before making the lizard so you could figure out how much the particular yarn you’re using will felt. If you figure your cat won’t be too picky, just go ahead and enlarge the pattern as you see fit.

#3

Thought you guys might wanna see what the lizard looks like.

Here is a pic of Felix with old lizard and what new lizard looks like.