Care of wool
The care of wool, especially Merino is very important, due to it’s well known charateristics it is considered a very luxurious product; this chart will show you how to avoid damage due to washing.
Above all, it’s very important to use warm water and liquid detergents, for the reason that powdered ones can cause holes where the powder gets in contact with the wool. Fill a bowl with warm water (30° celsius) and add a bit of neutral soap or the one specificly for the wool, then soak the garment for aprox. 10/15 mins. After that, take the garment out of the water without wringing and rinse it very carefully in warm water. Finally, the last rinse must be done with cold water so that the wool doesn’t felt. Furthermore for the correct care of wool it is very important to always wash the garments insideout. The garment must be dried flat to avoid deforming and left to dry away from direct sunlight, most importantly we strongly advise that you don’t dry the wool over heaters or with a direct heat source.
In case of mistakes during washing, for instance wrong temperature or wrong machine cycle, the result will be a felted garment. To try to fix this problem, here are some tips on how to prepare a home made antifelting solution made with natural ingredients. Adding this preparation to the water will help the recovery of damaged wool.
Ingredients:
Sodium bicarbonate fot the care of wool
The first method consists of adding a spoon of sodium bicarbonate to the washing water which must be warm. Sodium bicarbonate will protect our woollen garments and make them soft; in case of felted garments it’s possible to use sodium bicarbonate to try to unfelt the wool, just put two spoonfuls in a bowl with warm water and soak the garment for two hours. Finally it is very important that you always rinse the wool with the same water temperature.
Milk for the care of wool
Method two; it sounds strange, but milk is an excellent natural anti felter, furthermore it is very cheap and easy to find. Just add half a glass of milk directly to the washing water and leave the wool to soak for 10/15 mins. In the case of felted garments, we recommend adding more milk aprox 30% of the washing water and extending the soaking time to a few hours.
Citric Acid for the care of wool
Finally ,method three, the last of our anti felting ingredients citric acid,which you can find in all shops selling natural or herbal produts and also most chemists; similarly add this product to warm water when hand washing and then follow the same procedures as explained above in methods one and two.
Advice
Furthermore it is possible to mix the three products and keep ready for use; a particularly good result can be obtained when you mix sodium bicarbonate and citric acid; just mix two parts of sodium bicarbonate to one part of citric acid. Store in a glass jar in a dry place. If you prefer a liquid, dissolve one spoonful of citric acid in a glass containing equal amounts of milk and water; likewise this solution can be stored in a bottle, but in this case there are no problems with humidity.