Mercerized wool?!?
Help!
I got some old wool out of my mom's closet, and it says it's mercerized... I thought mercerizing only applied to cotton... Anyway, my problem is that I really like the colors of the yarn and am planning on making a felted thing (don't know what yet...) with it. Only, I'm wondering if the famous "mercerized" detail won't screw it up! I know that the more "processed" the wool is, the less confident I can be about the felting.
I guess I'll have to try to felt a little square and see.
Has anyone tried felting mercerized wool???
Mercerized wool? Never heard of it. I thought Mercerizing was dipping the cotton in either an acid or maybe a basic bath to dissolve something or other out of the fiber and end up with a glossier product.
Anyway, swatching and testing is a good plan. I hope it works well.
"wool" is a british name for thread or yarn(like napkin is their name for a diaper... ick!) anyhow if this is old stuff maybe the label says if it came from the UK or Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
If not, in your kitchen light a bit of the fiber on fire by bringing a match, lighter, or candle flame close enough to ignite it. Cotton smells like grass or wood or paper burning. Wool smells like burning hair which it is. If you're not sure about your results, repeat with known bits of wool and cotton.
I suggest your kitchen because it's sort of flame proof, water is close at hand, and you probably have a vent hood to remove the smoke.
Mercerizing is a treatment for cotton using an alkali bath to smooth it. Treating wool with alkali would dissolve it.