I have been trying out felting the same bag design in Shetland fibre and merino fibre.
From these photographs can you tell which is which?
I expected a difference but was surprised at quite how marked it is.
Shetland fibre, is about 30 microns with a staple of 50- 120mm
Merino about 23 microns and has a 30-90mm staple.
Both the fibres I used had been bought from World of Wool. The Shetland was natural grey and the merino I carded white and black to make grey as it did not have enough predyed grey.
I used exactly the same resist and the only modification I made for the merino was to shorten the cord which i used in the design to strengthen the handle.
In terms of weight they weigh.
Shetland 100g. Merino 75g.
The Shetland was really hard to felt even with loads of water and soap, I never got It to shrink as much as I wanted, The decorations disappeared into the bag itself which is very soft and springy to the feel and visually I think quite flat. The merino was a lot easier to felt , has shrunk more and was more easy to shrink and because of the carder fibres I think looks more interesting. The declaration is more obvious as well.
A good bag experiment. Maybe I'll try it again. What shall I try it with?
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