Fulling a knitted item, especially flat items, is very easy. I had a load of cotton slacks to wash, not very dirty slacks so they needed only a short agitation cycle. Throw the slacks, hotpad and teacosy in the washer, add the usual amount of detergent, select the Regular cycle with a short agitation time, and start the machine. I left the lid open so I could watch the proceedings and pull the pieces out if necessary. They fulled perfectly in the 10 minute agitation time!
Yanked them out of the washing machine, closed the lid and let the load finish itself. Meanwhile, I filled the sink with water of the same temperature as the wash water and threw the pieces in to soak for a minute. Swished them about to make sure everything was rinsed out and laid them on the furnace vent in my dining room to dry. I have to mention that I live in an old house and the original furnace vents are very ornate ironwork--this particular one is flat on the floor, and my family has always used it to dry wet mittens and hats and to warm ourselves on cold mornings. It's amazing to stand on the vent in your flannel nightgown and let the warm air turn you into a bell! Until your mother yells at you for hogging all the heat, that is.
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| Hotpad, unfulled |
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| Hotpad, fulled |
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| Tea cosy, fulled |
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| Tea cosy, unfulled |
You can see that there's not much shrinkage in the pieces, but the fulling did fill in the gaps and lock the knit stitches together. Which is exactly the foundation I needed for the stitching to be applied. Here's the hotpad with waste canvas (10 per inch) basted in place:
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