Help! Re: knitting and felting

Cafe Society
1

I consider myself a fairly accomplished knitter, but I’ve never tried, or had any interest in, felting. That said, about a year ago I made my first pair of socks for myself. The formula given in the class I took to make them resulted in a pair that is just slightly too large. Is it possible to semi-felt them to make them shrink to fit? Perhaps by hand in the bathtub or something? I’d like to lose approximately an inch in the diameter of the sock.

2

If you have selected non-machine washable yarn for your socks then it is possible but it is not easy to get perfect sizing. Most things don’t shrink equally in all directions and it is very difficult to predict what’s going to happen with your yarn without a swatch. Some yarns felt as soon as you look at them, others take 3 trips throuogh the hot water wash. If you want to give it a whirl, you have 2 choices:

  1. throw them in a hot washing machine for 10 minutes, repeat as necessary (keep checking every 10 until you get what you want).

  2. you can get a basin of boiling hot water, add a tiny bit of dish soap, and scrub the socks with a plastic scrubbie till something happens.

Full disclosure: I always say I’m going to felt something by hand but give up because my arms get tired before anything happens. I then put it in the machine and get what I get.

IMPORTANT: If you have selected machine washable wool for your socks, it won’t felt.

3

If the problem is the fit around the ankles, you can get elastic thread and tighten things up with that. If they’re too big in the feet, use them as sleep socks for super-cold nights.

4

I accidently did just this with a pair of slightly-too-large socks. They didn’t felt so much as tighten up…I guess early felting would be theway to describe it. It worked perfectly…I just accidently threw them in the washer (on either cold or warm) and washed. But I know if I do it 3 or 4 more times, I’ll have unwearable felted…things.
So…maybe before you “really” felt them in hot water, try throwing them in with a load of laundry and see what happens. Can’t hurt and it may keep them from getting too felted.
Now I want to make some socks…I’m knitting plain squares for a throw and it’s boring!