Bleeding Yarn?

[NakedPancakes]

Today..I finally went to felt my bowl, which looked a bit like a hat.

D: Is it supposed to look like a hat?

Anyways. I tried to felt it in the sink, I don't suppose I did it long enough. Because it's not all cool and felty like. But uh. It started bleeding. And so I was like D: Oh no. Is it supposed to do that?
I felted once before and that didn't happen.

So...Is it normal?

Also. If I want to felt it a little in the washing machine, do you have any tips?
My mom said not to put it in with anything.

[marykz]

I think it depends on the yarn and how colorfast their dye is. some bleeds a little, some a lot. If you do it in the washer I'd use an old pair of jeans destined for the rag bin with it. that way if the color bleeds and stains, it wont matter.

You will probably then want to run a cycle of the machine again with just the jeans or old towels to sort of clean out the machine.

I like to put the thing to be felted in a zippered pillowcase, to reduce the woolie bits getting stuck in