Wool Basics-Washing Wool!

This is the next post in a series that I hope will convince you that taking care of wool isn't even close to as difficult as it sounds! :-) For the purposes of this instructional, I'm going to assume that you are not trying to felt your wool (I will have another post eventually on types of wool covers, felting, etc.). Again, if anything is unclear, let me know and I will modify!

When Do I Wash?

Remember, your wool only needs to be washed about every 2-6 weeks (exactly how often is going to depend on how you are using your wool-constantly? Only at night? Rotating through several covers? Just 1 or 2?), not after each time it is wet! As long as your wool has enough lanolin left, the lanolin will neutralize/clean the urine, so just let it dry if it feels damp, and when it is dry, it's clean! When your wool begins to retain a little bit of a "dank" or "musty" or "nitrogen/urine" odor, that means it is time to wash or relanolize. The other time you need to wash is if you have a poop blowout! If you just have a little poop, you can spot clean (addressed later). The big no-nos with wool are: do not wring it out or "agitate" it too much, do not let it get too hot (will cause shrinkage), do NOT dry it in the dryer, do not use bleach, don't stretch it when it's wet, and don't "shock" the wool fibers by changing the water temperature suddenly (ie don't rinse it in COLD water).

Wash Options

Now, I am lazy, so I prefer to wash and lanolize all in one step. This is totally up to you! You will add any of thse to your water for washing. You will want to add a little extra to the "wet zone" (crotch) and any spots that may be particularly dirty. For liquid washes, you do this by just pouring a little liquid on these areas. For a bar, just gently rub the wet bar over those areas. Your options for wash products include:

• Commercial liquid wool washes (NOT Woolite, I am talking about wool washes designed for wool diaper covers) which you can find at any cloth diaper retailer or website. These usually have lanolin in them-look for one with a pretty high percentage of lanolin. Note that washes with fragrance oil CAN (not necessarily WILL, but CAN cause your beautiful colors to bleed, so if it is scented, try to find one that is scented with an essential oil as opposed to a fragrance oil/perfume).
• Wool wash bar-these are also available from any cloth diaper retailer or website. You can get them in all sorts of fragrances, and they last a VERY long time. Again, look for one with a high percentage of lanolin.
• Ivory soap bar-you will use this the same way as a wool wash bar, but you will need to lanolize as a second step after washing. Make sure you get the original Ivory soap, and not one that is scented or has additives.
• Homemade liquid wool wash-this is the recipe for 1 item. If you are washing multiple covers at once, just multiply the recipe by the number of items. Take 1 cup of VERY hot water (not quite boiling, but VERY hot), add a pea sized amount of lanolin (any solid lanolin is fine; I use Medela or Lasinoh breasfteeding lanolin), 4-5 drops of baby soap or baby shampoo, and if you want to add a drop or two of an essential oil for scent, that's fine (it's also okay to use a scented baby soap or shampoo). Shake VERY vigorously until this mixture is blended. It should be a milky color and you should not see a bunch of droplets in it-if you do, shake some more and/or add a little more hot water. Note that if you do this, you can vary the amount of lanolin and soap if you wish (ie if you are having leakage problems, you can add more lanolin so your cover will be more heavily "lanolized"-or you can just dissolve lanolin and use it during the "rinse" part of handwashing).

Machine Washing

I do not necessarily recommend machine washing because your beautiful wool will last longer if you handwash it (and I don't think the machine really saves that many steps) but it can be done if you stay on top of what is happening with the machine! This only works for top loading machines.

1. Fill the machine with warm water (not hot!) and turn it off when it gets to the stage of the cycle where it would start to agitate.
2. Add your wool wash and swish with your hand to stir it in. If you are using a bar, rub with your hands under the running water as the machine fills.
3. Turn your wool items inside out and place them in the machine. Swish each item back and forth a little bit, and then allow them to soak for 15 minutes.
4. Set the machine to "spin" and allow it to complete the spin cycle only.
5. Remove the covers and lay flat to dry.

Hand Washing

I promise, this is not as hard as it sounds!!! No scrubbing boards or back breaking labor involved! :-)

1. Turn your items inside out.
2. Rinse in cool (NOT COLD-just slightly cooler than room temperature) water to remove urine salts and any solid waste.
3. Fill a sink or bucket (preferably one that is large enough to do all your items at once! I often use the kitchen sink) with room temperature water (or slightly above room temperature). If you are using a wool wash bar, place it under the tap as the sink/bucket fills and rub it between your hands.
4. If you are using a liquid wash, place the recommended amount in the water (follow the instructions on a commercial wash; for a homemade wash, add the whole thing minus whatever you poured onto your wet zone and dirty spots). Use your hand to swish it around a bit and evenly distribute it in the water.
5. Place the cover(s) in (you will have to hold it under water until it has enough water in it to stay submerged) and let it soak for 15-20 minutes. You can massage the items gently, but don't squeeze or wring them.
6. Drain the water, place your wool on a towel, fold the towel over the top of the wool, and squeeze or roll the wool to get some of the excess water out.
7. Refill the sink/bucket with room temperature water and place the wool back in it to rinse for 10 minutes.
8. Drain the water again, and repeat the towel squeezing. Lay flat to dry.

That wasn't so bad, right? This does take time, but not as much as one might think-and again, it only needs to be done every few weeks!

What to do About Poop

I know, your child probably never gets poop on his/her cover! But mine does. So here is what to do if that happens for the first time! ;-)

Clean the cover as soon as possible to prevent stains.

If it was just a little bit of poop, rinse the cover, and spot clean the area using a little of your wool wash product, some running water, and gentle massaging with your hands, a wash cloth, or a cloth wipe (don't rub the wool against itself as this can cause the fibers to stick to each other and felt).Rinse the area off again, then dry. No need to relanolize.

If it was a major blowout, rinse, rinse, rinse until you get most of the poop off, then wash and relanolize as you normally would.

How To Lanolize-A Photo Tutorial

As I mentioned in the last post, I think wool care is intimidating for people. However, it really is very simple! Lanolizing is one of the biggest parts of wool care, and it is very easy. Now, you should note that there are ALL kinds of ways to lanolize depending on what products you have. I'm going to show you how to do it in the easiest way possible with lanolin that you probably already have on hand.
Lanolin is a natural oil produced by sheep. The purpose of lanolin (when on the sheep) is to weatherproof their coat (ie waterproof!! Very nice for a diaper cover!), condition their wool (man, I wish my head made its own conditioner!), and keep their coats clean (lanolin plus wool plus moisture=natural soap). When applied to your diaper cover wool, this means that lanolin will help your wool to absorb more water before feeling damp (wool will absorb moisture regardless of whether it is lanolized-but it absorbs a LOT more if it is lanolized!), keep your wool feeling soft and luscious against your baby's skin, and it is the reason that you should only have to wash your wool every few weeks to months (depending on how many times it gets wet).
Lanolizing needs to be done before you use your wool for the first time, and again every time you wash your wool (not necessarily talking about spot cleaning for a little bit of poop here, but if you wash the whole cover, you will need to relanolize). Assuming you don't have a major poop blowout at some point and your cover is just getting a little urine on it, you will know it's time to relanolize when your cover starts to retain a bit of a urine/nitrogen smell or if you notice that you are starting to get some leaking or a lot of dampness on the cover but the diaper underneath it is not thoroughly soaked.
There are a LOT of lanolin products out there and at some point, I will probably do a blog post that talks about those options more specifically. However, for today I'm going to show you how to easily lanolize a cover using products that you probably already have around your home (and if not, you can get these easily and cheaply at any drug store or online). I apologize for the less than ideal picture quality-these were taken using a camera phone but hopefully you can get the idea!


First, you need to gather your "ingredients": a sink or bucket, a container with a lid that can hold at least a cup of water, lanolin, baby soap, a towel, and of course, your cover!



Just to verify-yep, this is Medela lanolin-the type that you used at the very beginning of breastfeeding (and hopefully don't need anymore!!! Any pure lanolin will work, though.

 

Okay, on to the lanolizing! Fill your sink (or bucket, etc.) with room temperature water.









Add a pea sized amount of lanolin to your container



Add one drop of baby soap-this helps the lanolin dissolve better.

Add about a cup of VERY hot water (not boiling, but very hot). Put the lid on and shake really hard so that the lanolin and soap dissolve into the water. When they dissolve, it should look like this-a milky whitish liquid.

Pour the hot water/lanolin mixture into the sink and stir it around a little. Then submerge your diaper cover in the water. You are going to have to hold it underwater long enough for the fibers to soak in enough water to stay submerged, or it will just float on the top (remember, even without lanolin, wool absorbs a fair amount of liquid!!

Let the diaper cover soak in your lanolized water for at least 15 minutes. You can leave it in there for longer than that without a problem, so you don't have to be too precise about this! In fact, some sources I have read have stated that covers can even soak overnight. So it's up to you-go kick your feet up, or chase your child around, or whatever! You've got some time. :-)

Remove the garment from the water and allow some of the moisture to drip into the sink. I usually just wait until the water stops "pouring" off. :-) Do NOT "wring" the garment of squeeze it against itself, as this can cause it to begin to felt and decrease the "life" of your precious and beautiful wool!

Place the garment on top of a towel.

Fold the other half of the towel on top of the garment and press straight down. This will "push" some of the liquid out of your garment. I just push down over each area of the garment a few times. When you are done, the garment will feel damp and saturated, but should not feel soaked or be dripping. If it is, move it to a dry part of the towel and repeeat the pressing process.

Last step! Place your garment somewhere relatively flat to dry. I usually put it across the corner of my diaper drying rack, but you could also lay it flat (You would need to turn it over if you do that). Wool takes a few hours to dry after this process, typically.

Tah-Dah!!!!

You have now successfully lanolized your wool garment. See how easy it is? It takes time, but the vast majority of the time is letting it soak. The actual time you have to spend actively doing something is probably less than 15 minutes-and remember, with wool you only have to do this process about once a month (can be as often as every 2-3 weeks if you are using it a LOT or as infrequently as every 2-3 months if you are only using it at night with another cover in the rotation).

It should be noted that your cover is going to smell a little "sheepy" (if you sniff the lanolin before you start this process-that's a "sheepy" smell and what you will smell on the cover after you lanolize it). This will be fairly faint and fade away after a few uses, but if it bothers you (my hubby and I like it-it's a pretty natural smell, and he grew up on a wool processing farm, so it's very nostalgic for him!) you have some options! You can add a drop or 2 of an essential oil in any scent to the lanolin mixture before you shake it up, or there are TONS of lanolizing products out there in every scent imaginable. You CAN also rinse your garment in vinegar and that will get rid of the sheepy smell, but I would WAY prefer my covers/clothing to smell like sheep versus vinegar-but that could just be my own personal preference.

Any questions? Anything unclear? Let me know and I'll clarify as needed!