Woolen Care
This is a basic guide for how to care for your woolen items so they look great and last for years.
Hand Washing:
Hand washing your sweaters or wool knit items is very simple! First off, you probably don’t need to wash your sweaters as much as you would expect. If you wash your sweater too many times it can strip the wool of it’s natural oils making the fibers become more brittle. I wash my sweaters probably two times throughout the winter season with frequent wear.
To wash - soak your sweater in a sink of lukewarm water with mild laundry soap (or, I prefer to use wool soak which is a no rinse formula.) Let it soak for about 20 minutes to a half hour and don’t over agitate; just make sure it is fully immersed in the water. Once the 20 minutes is up, if I am using laundry soap, I gently rinse my piece. If you use wool soak, rinsing is not necessary. Let the sink drain and gently squeeze out excess water and then I run it through my washing machine on spin/drain only! The spin cycle of my washing machine just uses centrifugal force to take the water out; thus it is not actually agitating the sweater. Once it has finished, I lay my sweater flat on a towel and gently reshape it to make sure it dries perfectly. Try to avoid drying any garments in harsh direct sunlight, especially anything with silk, as it weakens the fibers.
I strongly discourage dry cleaning, and tend to hand wash knits even if they say you can machine wash them. It is easy enough and will help the longevity of your piece imeasureably.
Storing:
Sweaters should be stored folded and not hanging to avoid stretching and misshaping. I wear my sweaters frequently, and do not store them away over the summer. However, if you like to store your sweaters seasonally, I recommend making sure they are washed and clean before putting them away and storing them in airtight bins or bags to avoid problems with moths or carpet beetles.
Pilling:
Contrary to what a lot of people believe, inexpensive sweaters are not more prone to pilling than expensive ones. What does have a large bearing is the type of fiber, how the yarn is spun, and how the piece is knit (loosely or tightly etc.). The softer the fiber, the shorter the fiber length and the more likely it is to pill. Some fibers that can be prone to pilling are: cashmere, merino wool, and certain kinds of alpaca. While tougher fibers like shetland wool, mohair, and suri alpaca are much less likely to pill. If you have a sweater that is pilling, unfortunately, there is not much you can do to change it. To try to keep it under control I would wash your sweater with wool soak (using the method above) and add 2 teaspoons or so of hair conditioner to the water. This will help condition the fibers in your sweater. Then I would use either an electric pill remover (I use this one) or a pill comb to remove the pills. Remember to be gentle with your sweaters!! If you use too heavy a hand and brush your fibers too much, you will brush out more fiber ends which will cause more pilling in the long run!
Moths and Carpet Beetles:
The dreaded…
I prefer not to use any chemicals on my clothes and so have built myself an arsenal of natural tools to combat these awful little critters. The very basic points are:
1- make sure your sweaters are clean before you store them for any lengthy period of time.
2- store in an airtight bin if you can.
3- spray wool spray on your items and in your closet! This is a great preventative measure, as is adding a few drops of peppermint or rosemary essential oil to the water when you wash your sweaters.
4- if you have found evidence of moths or carpet beetles, there are two ways of dealing with them - freezing and heating.
Freezing: put your items in an airtight bag in the freezer for two weeks! This will kill any living moths, larvae etc.
Drying: you can only use this method if you have a dryer with a removable shelf! Put your clean and dry garments on the shelf and run the dryer on medium for 1 hour. The heat alone will not shrink your garments without them being wet or agitated! If the item is between 120-150 degrees for an hour nothing will survive. DO NOT TUMBLE DRY!