Washing wool~
Wool covers only need to be washed when they are soiled or start to smell like urine. Wool should be washed with a wool wash such as Eucalan to ensure that the water repellant lanolin is not washed out.
1) Put a teaspoon of Eucalan in the bottom of a big pot/bowl.
2) Fill the pot with warm water and swish until the Eucalan is dissovled.
3) Put in your wool and let it sit for 15-30 min.
4) Take out the wool, squeeze SOME water out (or you will be wringing out the lanolin) and lay flat on a towel on a drying rack.
5) Use when it is dry.
Lanolizing Wool~
I actually tend to wash and lanolize at the same time since my wool never gets soiled.
Lanolizing sould be done every 2 weeks or when the covers seem to feel wetter on the outside. This means they are not repelling the moisture as well.
1) Put 1 teaspoon of Eucalan wool wash and 1/2 teaspoon lanolin into your pot/bowl.
2) Fill the pot 1/4 full with hot hot water and stir until the lanolin is dissolved (this is important to avoid a big lanolin spot on your wool.)
3) Continue to fill the pot with warm water and put in your wool, make sure the water is only warm so that the wool item will not begin to felt.
4) Let the wool sit for 15-30 min. Add more warm water if necessary or the lanolin will come out of the water and you will see a film floating on top. Do not panic if this happens just add more warm water until it dissolves again.
5) Take the wool out and squeeze SOME of the water out. Lay it flat on a towel on a drying rack.
6) Use when it is dry.Sometimes the wool feels sticky when it is dry. This just means that there is a lot of lanolin on the item, this will wear off after the first wearing.
A great soap bar for getting out stains in wool is called the Sudz and Dudz wool wash bar, this bar has lanolin in it so it will not remove that from you wool item. In addition, it miraculously removes any kind of stain old and new!
4 comments:
Thank you for such detailed pictures and instructions on lanolizing your wool. It seems to be a little easier for me to get. Hopefully this time (this will be try number three. . .) I'll get it right. I think it's a combination of using really really cheap wool yarn, and just not getting the instructions very well.
Thanks!
sara
If you don't mind, I am going to put a link to your site in my listing, because I tried using ask.com and it takes me to you! When I search special care instructions for wool longies, it brings me to you! I guess it is "meant to be!" ha! Thanks for your great info!!!
When teaching a class to other mamas about cloth diapers vs disposables, I brought ALL my wool soakers with me and all but 2 were damp from washing/ lanolizing and after it was over a lady "helped" me pack up by putting them into a plastic bag (still damp) and putting them into another woman's diaper bag, thinking they were hers. About 3-4 (frantic) days later I got a call from a woman saying "oops, I found your soakers and they smell bad. *sigh* I have tried and tried to wash them out and they still smell like mildew. Finally out of desperation I put them in the washer on delicate with shampoo and natural soap. They've been eaten. All but 2 are holy. Now I have 2 felted stinky soakers and a whole mess of stinky holy soakers. What should I do?
Wow! That is a bit of a mess. If they have holes you can sew them up? As for the stink I'm not sure. I haven't had that before. You might soak them in a mild baking soda solution? Or a mild vinegar solution? I haven't tried that, they are just ideas....I hope you figure something out:)
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