Felting Using a Front Load Machine

This past week I have been trying a new knitting technique called felting. It makes a very fuzzy dense fabric that looks nothing like knit. Its pretty cool. Since this was my first experience I figured things wouldnt end up perfect and I was right.... For my first felting experience I used a pattern called French Press Felted Slippers.
First I knitted all the pieces of the slippers: I general guideline is to use needles that are pretty large and make the piece much larger than you intend it to be. Wool yarn is essential otherwise it wont shrink when you put it in the wash.

Then I sewed them together and wove in all the ends, this part took longer than the knitting. The second picture shows how huge it was on my foot before felting! I was a little dubious that this huge thing would eventually fit my foot.

Then I began the felting process. Which consists of putting your work into a mesh laundry bag or pillowcase and putting it through the wash cycle on hot. It helps to put some tennis balls or a pair of old jeans because they add to the agitation process. You then check the project every 5-10 min to see how it is shaping up. Since I have a front loader things were a little tricky. It is crucial to not let the project go through the spin cycle or you will get some funky shaping in your fabric. My machine locks so I had to power the whole thing down and restart the machine every time I checked the slippers.

 Once the work is the size you want it you set it out to dry, this could take a few days. I shaped my slippers and left them to it.

 I felted the straps to long :( and they are a little misshapen and lumpy. Perhaps if I had blocked them they would have turned out better. There are spots on the slippers that are a bit lumpy as well. I'm not sure what would help this in the future. But most of felting seems like trial and error. I'm not thrilled with the yarn color (it blends in really well with our dirty Berber carpet) But it was on sale and I thought that if it was a total bust I wouldn't have wasted much money on the project that way. But I will try again sometime with a more vibrant color. But all in all the slippers are really soft and fit really well. So even though they are a bit ugly they are super comfy and in the end that is what slippers are all about anyway. Here are some pics of the finished product: