How does felting work?
Comment on Can you take the lint from your dryer and make clothing?
Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You can’t spin thread from it since the fibers are too short.
But you can use lint for felting.
spittingimage@lemmy.world 8 months ago
CobblerScholar@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Ever rolled lint in your hands and then it shrinks and gets denser? It’s kind of like that just more controlled. You’re tying a bunch of tiny knots in the fibers and letting friction keep it in place
spittingimage@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Interesting. I once came close to renting a house from a felter, but that’s the closest I’ve come to the process.
BourneHavoc@lemmy.world 8 months ago
“Felter? I hardly know her!”
blazera@kbin.social 8 months ago
Ive seen thread spun from it before
hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As someone who spins and felts, the fibers in lint are too short for felting too. Both spinning and deleting require the fibers be long enough to tangle and lint is the broken pieces of fibers that have fallen out of threads already. You can get it to stick together like felt but it won’t ever be sturdy like a felt because the fibers can’t get wrapped around one another or tangled up. Like trying to give dreadlocks to a guy with a buzz cut.
Some people use dryer felt to add color to felted things they have made but I think of lint like the crumbs at the bottom of the cereal box or chip bag.