Australian Knitting - July 2019

AustralianKnitting 29

lightsothatit couldbeeasilycarried
to theirnextencampment.TheRomans
andGreeksalsousedfeltedwool–
soldiersworebreastplates,tunicsand
bootsasprotectivewearin battle.
Asiannomadictribesmensuch
asGenghisKhanmayalsoattribute
someoftheirsuccessto themastery
of felting– whichallowedthemto
withstandandsurvivesomeofthe
mostfreezingweatherconditions
onearth;andcertainlyfeltedtents,
blanketsandclothingwerea vast
improvementontheanimalhides
thatsomeopponentswereusingfor
protection.
Eventoday,feltis stillusedin parts
of theworldwithharshclimatesto

maketentsor ‘yurts’in Mongolia,and

rugsandblanketsfornomadictribes

in SouthCentralAsia,oftenwiththe

sametraditionalmethodsofrollingthe

woolintolargewetlogsthendragging

it behinda horseto jostlethefibres

together.

Feltingcanbedescribedasthe

processofturningwoolintoa

mattedmaterialwherethefibresare

interlockedandcompressedto create

a light,warmandlargelywindand

waterresistanttextile.Whilewoolis

thefibremostoftenusedasthebasic

rawmaterial,anyproteinfibrefrom

ananimalsourcecanbeused.These

animalfibres(suchaswool,mohair,

alpaca,angoraandcashmere)create

varyingfeltedeffectsdepending on

thecharacteristicsof therawfibre.

A processcalled‘fulling’is

sometimesconfusedwithfelting,

althoughtheyinvolveessentially the

sameactions.Fullingis theprocess of

fluffingupanalreadywovenor knitted

pieceofwoollenclothandis different

to feltingwhichtakesrawfleece and

putsit throughthesameprocess

withouthavinganyinitialstructure.

Originally,‘fullers’weretextile

workerswhocreateda feltedfabric

thatwouldnotunravelandcould be

cutor formedintootheritems. Fulling

canbeappliedlightlyto simply ‘fluff

up’a fabricsoit endsupsofter,

warmerandfuzzierbutstillvery

Nunofeltingcreatesa scarf withvaryingtextures,

fromFibreFusionwww.fibrefusion.com.au

Raw materials such as Felbi pre-felts and wool batts

come in a range of colours from http://www.fibrefusion.com.au

Knitted yarn felts well creating new textures

• but shrinks in the process.