Cleaning wool
 

I inherited 4 merino wool sweaters and wore them to work last winter. I'd been hoping to score the thrift store find of the $5 merino wool sweater to wear while riding, but haven't found one yet. When I took 1 of the 4 sweaters out to wear this winter I noticed a big white stain on the sleeve of the navy blue sweater. I'm not sure what the stain is from and don't remember spilling anything on it last spring and am wondering if there is any other way to clean this without taking it to the dry cleaners. If the stain is permanent I would use the sweater for riding and would end up needing to clean it again later - how do people take care of those hard to find thrift store finds that the other guy always ends up with?

What I should do: Hand wash in cold water using Woolite; lay flat to dry.

What I actually do: Wash with normal clothes (on cold). Dry with normal clothes.

FWIW I source most of my stuff from gently used items on ebay. Sweaters begin life as office attire, and when they get grubby, they become bike-only layers. The sweaters really shouldn't be dried, but I've only had one shrink at all after about 20 washings. It is still wearable. They do tend to pill more when dried.

I also had a dry cleaner seriously screw up my wool sweaters once, so I don't bother with dry cleaning.

Hand wash in a bucket with Woolite. Rinse, squeeze some water out but not too hard. Then I lay a towel on the floor, lay the jersey flat on top of it then roll the towel with jersey inside and squeeze and step on it to get as much water as I can out. By then it's usually close to dry and I drape it over my shower curtain rod to finish drying.

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I've heard sheep say they are SOOOoooo happy they don't have to take dry cleaning baths. What I mean my that is...wool is a natural fiber. It's exposed to the elements when the sheep are out in the pastures...and they don't shrink. And knowing that...when I was in the Navy and had to clean my 100% wool dress blues (the 'Crackerjack' uniform)...I washed them in cold water by hand with Woolite...like suggested above.

Dan

Thanks!

Woolite in the front-load washer on the hand wash setting.

I use mesh garment bags designed for washing delicate items. These are available at Walmart, Target, etc.


-Tim-

Cold water, delicate wash front loader. Hang on rack. Help to turn inside out to prevent little fuzz balls.