Washing pure wool--a revelation

As I read this I am looking at a beautiful wool sweater, bought this autumn, which I washed with great care - and which has shrunk. The body and arms have stretched back to size with some careful pulling, but the neck is a separate piece, sewn on very tightly with chain stitch. It was always tight, Now it is completely impossible to get over my head.

I intend to remove this piece and think of a way of fixing it back on with more 'give' in it. Grrrr.

I dare not trial with my best tops so this morning took out of a drawer an early spin, ie loose woollen 2 ply spin merino that looks very delicate and which I knit into a poncho. I only wear it rarely so I have tentatively trialled this chunky one on a machine wash

Turned inside out, 1 tsp of eucalan in the drawer and set on a wool wash 30, then I watched as it was gently rocked from side to side. It took 39 minutes and I did expect felting

Amazing result, no felting at all, a beautiful wash and is now drying flat. After all these years, I learnt something new, a game changer

I have a miele but I suggest that you watch a wool wash on any machine. Look for the gentle rocking motion. The only time mine got bashed was at the absolute start of spinning and then it remained on the outer drum. It spun at 1000

Monica, after spinning and turning into hanks. Home spinners always soak their skeins, thwack them outside and hang to drip dry. Your jumper was obviously not treated with this process. Such a shame and often expensive woollen garments are labelled as dry clean only, which is a cop out

This pre-soaking and thwacking gets rid of any shrinkage potential

I have some cashmere jumpers & cardigans, plus some pure wool ones which I have never dared put in the washing machine and follow the same process as you karmalady which is a bit of a faff I agree. Dare I?

I have cones of colourmart yarn upstairs, they are cheap as they are produced for commercial use ie cashmere and cashmere/silk blends

Your post has inspired me Monica and I am just about to make skeins from the cones, I will soak and thwack and that will also help in making swatch-making. It is going to be a dry enough day so the skeins can be draped over coat hangers to drip outside

The last jumper I hand knitted was a long slouchy one in expensive, super-chunky pure new wool. After hand washing certain woollies I would give them a quick spin, always fine.

Unfortunately I had a new washing machine with no ‘just spin’ function - just a rinse and spin’ you have to faff with (no instructions either, bloody Bosch!) to get spin only - and I mis-faffed after washing it for the first time, and it came out ready to fit a 4 year old.

One thing I’ll be certain to check for in any new WM will be a ‘just spin’ function. It had never occurred to me that any good-brand WM wouldn’t have one.

I always spin dry jumpers before pulling into shape and drying flat, usually on the net 'shelves' of a heated airer, which is great for the purpose.

I knit a lot, and often use oiled yarn which needs to be well washed after finishing to get the oils out. The process for this can be quite 'thorough' . You wash in water as hot as your hand can stand, using Fairy Liquid, rinse and repeat several times until the water is clear and the FL forms no bubbles. Then a lot of people spin and tumble dry - even cashmere - for the first wash only.

I stop short of tumbling (my nerves wouldn't stand it), but spin it, as yarns like cashmere can take ages to dry without help. They 'wick', so the moisture keeps coming to the surface. I made a very thick cashmere jumper years ago, and it's still going strong after many washes and spins. My heart was in my mouth the first time, as the yarn cost ££££, but it is fine.

My daughter put a new alpaca handknit (mine) in the tumbler, however, and it came out tiny and felted 😡. It's the agitation that does for most natural fibres, and spinning uses centrifugal force so doesn't agitate.

PS nobody follows the first wash process for subsequent washes . You treat the garment like any other, and wash carefully with Lux, Euclan or similar. I do handwash, but thicker yarns would probably be ok in the machine.

I use the 15 minute fast wash, with little or no detergent and then separately spin.

I have been doing this with wool sweaters for years and found it works very well - until the sweater mentioned above.

I have a wool programme on my WM, but it is 54 minutes long, so I never use it. It seems far too long and asking for trouble

I have lots of cashmere and pure wool and silk.

All go in at the wool cycle and washed in liquid detergent especially for wool and silk.

I am wearing stuff I’ve had for years and all as good as new, except the piling which I remove.

Witzend there is a way of making the Bosch do a spin-only cycle. It’s an obscure method which my Dh discovered. When I see him later, I’ll ask him if he remembers how to do it. We have a new machine which does have a spin-only function.

I tried washing ready-made cashmere and wool in the machine and they’ve been fine. I was a bit tentative about it but I figured I had nothing to lose, because the faff of hand washing meant I didn’t wear those jumpers so if it shrank, well, so be it.

The wool wash is quite soporific - gentle swooshing from side to side!

I think the big thing is NEVER use washing detergent. Liquid soap only.

Thanks, SueDonim, I worked it out a while ago, but why there is nothing in the instruction booklet to tell you how, defeats me!

For my best woolies I hand wash and hand rinse using the machine to drain and spin between the stages and after the last rinse. I hang to dry on a hanger on a coat hook that I specially had mounted above a radiator .

I will google 'thwack'. It sounds like something the vikings did.

There wasn’t even an instruction book with our current machine, Witzend! I had to go online to find out the info.

Ditto with the oven (we’ve moved to a new build house.) We fancied cheese on toast one evening and had not the faintest idea how to make grill work.

I have a Bosch which does Rinse & Spin as default, but if you turn off the Aqua button it just spins. It is more than 5 years old now though.

M0nica

As I read this I am looking at a beautiful wool sweater, bought this autumn, which I washed with great care - and which has shrunk. The body and arms have stretched back to size with some careful pulling, but the neck is a separate piece, sewn on very tightly with chain stitch. It was always tight, Now it is completely impossible to get over my head.

I intend to remove this piece and think of a way of fixing it back on with more 'give' in it. Grrrr.

I've just put two of last years lovely merino sweaters, bought the winter before last, into the bag for the ragman who collects from our local charity shop.
The washing instructions were quite clear and I followed them exactly but they shrank and the firm was very unhelpful, to say the least.

I use the 15 min wash on the machine, even washed a cashmere jumper, which was past its best so used it as a test, so far everything has been fine.

I used liquid soap and a 20-degree temperature.

Whitewavemark2

I think the big thing is NEVER use washing detergent. Liquid soap only.

I did. I did everything right.

I am wearing stuff I’ve had for years and all as good as new
I've got older stuff which is still fine.
M&S fine merino wool sweaters seem to wash well but some of the newer, more expensive garments from other firms don't wash well, even though they're not cheap.

Obviously the yarn hasn't been thwacked!

Well I must be jolly lucky then. Mind you the last cashmere I bought at the beginning of the winter, was recycled - so that probably explains that.

I’ve recently purchase a 100% pure wool dress. Now not sure whether that ought to be washed or dry cleaned.

I will google thwack, it sounds like something the Vikings did
Caleo when in India and on a river trip, we saw washer women thwacking clothes on the nearby stones. It took a lot of effort.

I've washed old cashmere cardigans and jumpers on the wool wash with liquid non-bio Fairy and they came out softer than doing it by hand. I think it has something to do with the quality of the cashmere. I hand-washed DH cashmere beanie just squeezing in dissolved Stergene and it will now fit our GS. John Lewis and M&S cashmere seem a lot more sturdy than Barbour.

I have a cashmere skirt I knitted in the 70's. With a then very fashionable Chevron pattern.
I noticed the other day chevron is back.
Alas it doesn't fit me anymore.

I wash pure wool jumpers on the cold water cycle of my machine with a little liquid laundry soap and about a decilitre of household vinegar.

I spin dry them on the least number of rpms possible, if they are thick Arran sweaters and the like, otherwise I don't spin dry them.

They come out of the machine beautifully clean and have never shrunk, except for a merino hand-knitted scarf, so I have never machine-washed merino since.

To dry: I roll each garment in a towel and let it stay rolled up for a couple of hours to get rid of as much dampness as possilbe.

After that I unroll them and lay each garment flat on a thick layer of newspaper with a towel or old folded sheet on top and leave them to dry overnight. By morning, as there is heating on in the kitchen, there is usually only surface dampness left, which drys in the course of another couple of hours.

If you need them dry quicker, you can press them with a cool iron and a clean cotton cloth between the iron and the clothes after they have lain flat for a couple of hours.