Dear Tabby
I have washed and dried and agitated my woven scarf and the fabric just won’t full! I wove the scarf on my Cricket loom sett at 10 epi. I was hoping for a fluffy felted scarf for winter, but instead I have a light and loosely woven summer accent piece! My yarn is wool and sport weight and I just cannot figure out why it won’t fluff up. Please send felting and fulling help!
–Chilly in Nebraska
Dear Chilly,
That sounds cold and frustrating. What a bummer to have a flimsy scarf instead of the woolen warmness you wanted!
The most important thing to check when buying yarn for weaving is whether or not it is a super wash (after choosing your favorite colors of course). Superwash yarn is great and especially useful in knitting and crochet, but should be used judiciously for weaving. The reason for this is that super wash yarns are created to NOT full or felt, so therefore they won’t bloom the way we want in a woven fabric.
So, unless you want your final fabric to appear about the same as it is on-loom, opt out of superwash yarn for your weaving project or combine it with other yarns. The yarn label should indicate if a yarn is superwash. Note, many sock yarns are either superwash or have fiber content that will impede fulling or felting.
If you end up with a superwash yarn that you just have to use, try weaving at a finer sett than you might normally use, say at 12 e.p.i. instead of 10 e.p.i. Another option is to use superwash for the warp and a non-superwash wool for the weft. Mixing the superwash with other yarns in the warp is another option.
–Tabby