Q: I keep hearing about FELTING. What is it, and how does it work?

A. Felting is the fine art of ruining your handmade, 100% wool sweater by allowing someone with no laundry savvy to wash it. The Laundry Person throws it into an agitating washing machine along with everything else in the basket, including several pairs of grubby jeans, a few sweatshirts and a pair of running shoes, then later scoops it out with all the other clothes (which are probably covered in stray fibers from your formerly beautiful sweater) and tosses the whole lot into the dryer, sets it on HIGH heat, pushes the button and walks off to channel-surf. When the buzzer sounds, signaling the end of the dry cycle, your precious sweater is scrabbled into the basket with all the other thoroughly tumble-dried clothes. Upon separating them so they can be rolled into balls, the Laundry Person is amazed to see the tiny little doll sweater in the basket, not remembering
a) having put it into the washer or
b) having seen a doll on the premises small enough that this sweater would fit it!

When used intentionally, felting takes a garment too big for a giant, and makes it fit you, while making the fabric tight, dense and water-resistant. Such a fabric is an excellent choice for purses, hats, vests -- classic Bavarian boiled wool jackets are simply knit large and felted. They're better than sweaters at keeping the wind out of your armpits, and they last just about forever!

Felting is an irreversible process that happens when you knit with an animal fiber (except bleached white wool) and then wash it in an agitating washer with hot water and a little detergent, followed by a cold rinse. The shock of the temperature change combines with the friction of agitation to make the hooks on the wool mat together so that the stitch definition disappears and the work will never, ever unravel. The resulting fabric can even be cut with no fraying! Not at all like your nerves when a certain Laundry Person is having at your sweaters!