machine and hand wool wash

Posted by Catherine FitzGerald on 16th Aug 2011

This is a Godsend - this is the cheapest, kind eco-product available - and I am a feltmaker and wool geek, so I know. This smells lovely too.

Forget the Imse Vimse teeny tiny bottle with the woolly lambs on the lable for around a tenner - here you're getting a whole litre of stuff that will wash all your jumpers gently for at least half a year! Forget traipsing the aisles for woolite - costs more anyway and none of the supermarkets are buying it to sell anyway.

So relax and - if you have a machine with a gentle handwash cycle - DO buy the merino cardies and the wool-silk bodies for your little ones - they need real wool too!

I have used this detergent on real wool, cashmir, woo-silk, pure silk, on Popolini, Lana, Selana, Disana, the White Clothiung Company - all those lovely organic wool and silk makes.

I just reshape afterwards and lay flat on a towel - much less shrinkage with this bottle too (although my machine may not get rid of all dirt and I have had to double wash or hand wash rather than shrink by crucifying a jumper).

If you want to lanolise a jumper (e.g. for walking sailing or fishing) or make a wool over nappy waterproof, buy lanolin sheep wool fat (preferably non brand from a pharmacy - getting rarer by the day in this country, but that's the cheapest) put in a teaspoon of fat less than half a cap of this soap and make a lather (make sure the water is only luke warm before you put in the wool or it will shrink) fully saturate the woool item, leave it in a little while, then squeeze gently - do not wring and lay out on a few towels to dry.