Thursday, December 17, 2009

Care and feeding of your woolies

Washing Wool Covers

Wool covers do not usually need to be washed unless they get poo on them. Since they are naturally antibacterial and antimicrobial, all you need to do is air them out when they become damp. When they do become soiled, you can use a commercial wool wash like Woolite or Eucalan, or a homemade wool wash like the one given below...Myself, I often just use a bit of lavender baby bath and warm water. I wash my wool covers about once a month. I soak and swish the woolies for about 30 minutes, brushing off any poo with an extra soft toothbrush, then squish out excess water and prepare to lanolize.


Lanolizing

After you wash your woolies you will need to lanolize them so that their magical urine neutralizing property and waterproofness is restored. I usually do a half dozen or so at one time so this will need to be adjusted for smaller loads.

I place a rounded tablespoon of lanolin in a cup of water and microwave to melt...I add this to a sink of warm water with a squirt of baby wash and mix it in vigorously with a wisk until the water turns milky...I add my woolies inside out and let them
soak for 15-30 minutes...squish out some of the excess water, transfer them to the washing machine (I use a small bucket to do this), run them on a spin cycle to remove most of the water, and hang to dry on a drying rack.


Homemade Eucalyptus Wool Wash

You will need:
1 cup methylated spirits (aka denatured alcohol)

4 cups pure soap flakes

1 small bottle eucalyptus oil


Mix well together, it will be rather thick and gluey. Store in a resealable container. Use one tablespoon of this mixture to a sink of water. Does not need to be rinsed out.

2 comments:

  1. You have some really helpful tips here! Questions: for the homemade wool wash, how many ounces is the "small bottle" of essential oil you use? Also, can you estimate how many ounces of liquid this concoction makes? Thanks so much!

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  2. I makes about 3 cups of wash...it is not so much a liquid as a paste, though. The 'small bottle' of EO is 10ml, or 1/3 of an ounce.

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