Wool help needed

551 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by corysmilk, Jun 7, 2005

Munchkingirl

Discussion Starter · Jun 6, 2005

I have a couple of questions about my wool covers.

First, I washed them on a handwash cycle with warm water in the machine. I used Eucalan and Liquid Lanolin. They seemed to be okay. No rinse. They did shrink a little. Not enough to not fit, but enough to not have a wide range in the size anymore. Is there anyway to restretch a little?

Secondly, they seemed to be leaking right through and so that is why I used the Lanolin (it was the first time I had lanolized them), but ds leaked through two again already. (One is thin anyway, so I think I just need to use a doubler. The other one is thicker...I was using it during the day just with and infant prefold...ds is big enough to use a premium, so maybe it was the prefold not the cover?). What do you think?

Thirdly, two of the covers did not come clean and instead of sunning or just using a little more eucalan/elbow grease. I did another wash with eucalan AND lanolin (thinking it had been rinsed out at the first wash...I know silly). Anyway there is too much in those and they feel slimey. Should I try to strip or just bide my time and let it ware off?

Sorry so rambling...I just love my covers and want to have them for as long as possible. Thanks, Tara

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Electra375

· #2 · Jun 6, 2005

Unfortunately, hand washing is best for wool care.

You can reshape your wool by using hair conditioner and water, let it soak and then stretch gently. Any cheap conditioner will work and you do need a bit of it.

You need instructions to re-lanolize your wool. Basically, in a large pot of hot water melt 1" (1" per cover) of lanolin (pure lan 100 -- booby cream) w a spec of baby wash to help break the oil down a bit. Place wool in the water after it has cooled to tempeded and soak for 20 minutes or so. Gently squeeze out excess water and then lay on towels to roll the wool cover in the towels, stand on the towels to get the water out and hang to dry the rest of the way.

I put a little conditioner in my lanolin water to make my wool soft and smelling nice. EOs are nice too, wet wool does have a stink about it.

Do look up wool care on some diapering webistes, only some wools can be machine washed. Even if they are machine washable, they still need to be lanolized which is not effectively done in large quanitities of water such as in a washing machine.

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sewingbarbj

· #3 · Jun 6, 2005

I don't find one pre fold is enough for my dd. It is possible you need a little more thickness in the diaper.
Conditioner is definitly the way to go to re stretch the cover.

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treehugginhippie

· #4 · Jun 6, 2005

I've never washed wool in the washing machine so I don't have any advice there. I wash my wool by hand and use Eucalan and liquid lanolin mixed together. I use the instructions found here: http://www.doodlebottoms.com/store/ancillary.asp?ID=16

As far as stains...I just soak them the best I can and don't worry about it and they seem to get lighter with each subsequent washing.

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corysmilk

· #5 · Jun 7, 2005

my advice is to NOT wash them in hte machine on any cycle.
If you only want to wash 2 at a time it is really simple to fill the sink up and wash them. The water should be just room temp, or above. not warm like from the washer.
I use spray lanolin from
www.monkeysudz.com just spray and gently rub

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