tips on felting crochet items?

You will have to make sure that you are using pure wool, not superwash, and blends often don't work as well. Any animal fibre will work, and some breeds of sheep have wool that is better suited for felting than others. I find that dyed wool works better than natural colours.

Crochet is a little harder to felt because the way you make the stitches causes more twist in the stitches and the yarn becomes more compact. You want to use a yarn that has little twist in it. Your stitches need to be quite loose. When the item is finished crocheting, you will have something much too large and much too floppy. But that is the way it needs to be. The fibres need enough room to rub against each other in order for them to catch on each other and become hopelessly tangled.

It's always a good idea to make a test piece, to see how much it will actually shrink and how long it will take to felt. Every yarn will be a little different, and you never really know what will happen. Don't skip this step!

Put your pieces in a top-loading washing machine with less water than normal. You are going to have to open the machine frequently to check on it, so front loading are just no good for this. I use as hot water as I can get, but this is not crucial. It is the rubbing that causes felting, not temp of water. Also put in something rough to rub against -- jeans work well. Sneakers sometimes work too. But do NOT use a towel! (don't ask how I know) Put your items into a pillow case, to catch all the fibres that come loose. You can really do damage to your machine if you clog some pipes! Use a good soap, allow to soak for a few minutes, and then agitate (run the machine).

Check your progress often; about every 5 min is a good thing. Some wools felt quicker than others. When the size is almost right (remember that some shrinkage will occur during the drying step), stop the process, rinse well, shape your pieces (stuff if necessary to hold the shape) and allow to dry. This may take a day or two, depending on your humidity and how thick or wet the pieces are.

Remember that you can run them through the process once more for further felting, but you can never un-do too much felting. The matting will be permanent, so be sure you get it just right. It's a fun process, and everyone should try it at least once. I hope the crochet will work for you as well as knitting does.

Felting Crochet

I have only felted knitting not crochet but no doubt the principle is the same.

You need to chose pure wool or other animal fibre. Machine washable wool will not do as the treatment which makes the yarn machine washable stops it from felting.

The felting process shrinks the work by approx one third.

You need to produce the fabric on a much looser tension than usual. This is because the felting process shrinks and fluffs up the work. Both of those facts fill up the holes so you need bigger holes otherwise the fabric is very stiff after felting.