Awww, Sam is so cute! From what I've heard, handfelting takes a while, but is good exercise. My best friend tried to handfelt some mittens and let's just say she was tired and had to take multiple breaks. Do you know someone that has a washer?

Sam is too cute! I would go with the same recommendation as Angela, find someone with a washer. I've heard handfelting is a bitch. Also make sure you have something sturdy you can block this on. It will really look better in the long run. Simon and Eddie still won't use the kitty pi. It now holds their toys. Stupid cats.

Your kitty is adorable. About the hand-felting - not impossible, but rather rough on the hands. I had to do it for the same reason you're considering doing it - coin-op washing machine that doesn't open until the cycle is done. Perhaps you have a friend with a washing machine?

Sam is so cute! He reminds me of my little Niblet. If you go the hand felting route, definitely get some heavy duty gloves - it's murder on the hands. But should work just fine. By the way, your Demi is GORGEOUS!! I love it!

Sam looks really cute in his kitty bed! Good luck with the felting.

find a friend who owns a washer... i felted a hat once by hand and it was really really time-consuming.. and exhausting. i ended up throwing the hat in the bathtub and squishing them by feet just to get the last stage of felting done. go with the washer..

If you do go with hand felting, be sure to wear gloves or textured silicone pot mitts (for scrubby action). The soap I used made my hands peel for a week.

I let my kitty pi go through the spin cycle. But, if you do decide to hand felt, you can always start the process by putting it in a bathtub and walking on it.

Your cat is so adorable! So cute in his kitty pi there.
Also, I would generally avoid hand-felting.

that is SOOO cute! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Sam is the best! Makes me wonder if my kittens would go for a yummy bed like this... great fun!

I love your cat, his coat is beautiful. I'd say definitely go with the laundromat! Hand felting would take forever!

what a beautiful cat. isn't it amazing how the posts with cats in them gte allll the comments. my Jnr won't even look at his Pi bed. in fact, if i show it to him he makes a point of curling up to sleep on the cold, hard floor.

such a cute kitty! which reminds me i should knit that for my cats, too.

definitely try felting with washing machine! good luck.

every time i've felted it's taken over 3 full cycles, and i just let it go through all of them: spin, rinse, etc. didn't have any detrimental effects as far as the eye can see. just make sure you select "hot" and it should be fine. even if it rinses, spins, etc., it will still felt more in the next wash (assuming it needs more than one - i've always had to do at least 3).

Try hand felting it if you've got an hour or so and a lot of aggression you need to get out.

I always hand felt in the bathtub and it works fine for me. I also put really cold water in the sink and shock it every so often to speed things up. It is a bit of a workout, but I think you could handle it. Of course, if I had a washer I'd probablly be singing a different tune...

ohmygosh, your sam looks JUST like my sam! i thought about knitting kitty pis for him and my other cat, harlan, but they already have beds and seem perfectly content with them, so i didn't.

Simon is so cute! And my cats still sleep in their pies, but it's not as often as it was in the summer. I think at night in the winter they like to sleep in the bed with us. I think he'll like his pi too!

Hand felting for a big object is a LOT of work, but it's definitely good exercise (not that you need it, speed demon!) Put it in the bathtub, use hot-ish water, and like Elli said, have a basin of ice water ready to shock it every once in a while and get the fibers to grip. Good luck!

ps I'm not a big blog/pet person, but your cat is really cute :)

If you HAVE to use the laudromat, just take the pi out when it gets to the spin cycle and let the machine spin empty.

I use a laudromat for my normal washing but I made a point of borrowing a home washer to felt because I knew I'd need multiple washes and that adds up at 'da mat.

Ah, look at how cute Sam is! And he likes his bed. I've never felted anything, so I am absolutely no help. You can mail it to me and I'll felt it for you :-)

I tried handfelting for a bag and gave up after 2 full evenings of squishing madly in super-hot water, then dunking in ice cold water. Ugh. I gave up and went to my laundromat, and presto! One full cycle, and I had a perfectly felted bag!

Don't get to see your kitty very often ... but he is so adorable. From what you wrote, he is well-trained and well-behaving too ... got to love him!
I have the same problem as yours ... the coin-operated washing machine at the apartment is not that flexible ... but I still think it's much more efficient than handfelting.

I hand felt *all* the time. Not a big deal. It usually takes me 25 - 45 minutes depending on the yarn and the size of the item. The water doesn't have to be super-hot; no need to hurt your hands. Just keep changing the water when it cools down too much and occasionally throw it in cool water for a good shock. Forty-five minutes of doing the same thing can *seem* endless -- but it's just like boring knitting, find something else to do at the same time. Luckily for me, my 2 year old daughter loves to play in the water, so it's a family activity.
I think it's really fabulous to actually *feel* the felting happening. You get a much better idea what happens to your knitting and when. You also have really good control over how far you want to take the felting.
Regarding letting items go through the spin cycle, I have to respectfully disagree with several of the other commenters... DON'T let your knitting go through the spin cycle unless you're ok with permanent creases in your final object. I actually started felting by hand because there's no way to stop my front-loading washer before the spin cycle. After several projects got permanent creases in them which totally ruined them, I realized that the time spent hand felting was pretty minor compared to the time spent knitting the thing in the first place...

I've made 4 kitty pi beds and washed them at the laundromat each time to felt. They're not wholly dry after the entire wash cycle, so I always blocked them until they were dry and have had good luck with all 4 of them. But I blocked them on something that made me have to stretch the beds over really tightly (picnic basket w/ towels and bungee cords). They're all holding up well and my kitties love them.

Ah! That is such a cute picture of Sam in his Kitty Pi bed. I hope he loves it and uses it every day.

Perhaps you should not felt it at all, as it seems to be the right size for your cat?

Your kitty looks snug and happy in his new bed.

when licknit first started this random lady (random cuz she was never heard from again) turned up and said she felted with a plunger in the tub. a new one, of course. might work?
and your kitty is a cutie!

Fabulous! I say don't felt the kitty pi...have to make one! Love all your projects too..

Aw, Sam is such a cutie! Unfortunately my cat only sleeps in things that she knows aren't meant for her...i.e. clean laundry, my knitting.

Sam is such a cutie!

Give it a try in the bathtub, wearing rubber boots and stomping on it whilst it sits in hot soapy water. Alternately toss it into cold water. Maybe clean up the plunger and get some plunging action going to beat up on it further.

With the sort of machines it sounds like you have at the laundromat, I don't think you'll have enough control over the felting process...

I like to felt by hand...

I like to imagine that I wash all my clothes and linens by hand, scrubbing and scrubbing in some glorified version of the 18th century countryside.

I enjoy feeling the change in the material as it solidifies and shrinks.

I like the way it feels like you're kneading dough.

I like the smell of clean wet wool (I admit that one's especially wierd).

I like feeling like I had a little arm workout from this usually sedentary hobby.

My god, woman! We need more pictures of this most gorgeous cat!

:-)