Machne Wash my 2X 100% wool Cabela's sweater w/whites in HOT water w/bleach and detergent

[ainitfunny]

Got it GOOD AND CLEAN...of course it would fit a 6 year old when it came out of the wash...PUT IT BACK IN THE WASHER by itself, added a half cup of CREME RINSE HAIR CONDITIONER, hot water, short cycle NO RINSE. It came out almost THE ORIGINAL SIZE with little, almost no stretching or pulling needed to get it back to the regular size. Air dried over chair.

IT SMELLS WONDERFUL, and is NOT ITCHY, but soft as cashmere.
THAT IS ALSO THE WAY to really get clean those 100% wool socks that WILL shrink.

[Caver78]

Fantastic tip!
We've been buying ''Smart Wool'' socks since the late 90's. They are regular wash an dry, rated the best by Backpacker Mag. They are the same as those expensive ''diabetic socks'' an we wear them year round. Of course in the summer you can wring a bucket of sweat out of them, but in workboots your feet are perfectly dry. Wildest thing I've ever seen. I wait till they have a two fer sale at the hunting stores.
http://www.smartwool.com/mens/mounta...y-crew-10.html

[Rescuedog]

Fantastic tip!
We've been buying ''Smart Wool'' socks since the late 90's. They are regular wash an dry, rated the best by Backpacker Mag. They are the same as those expensive ''diabetic socks'' an we wear them year round. Of course in the summer you can wring a bucket of sweat out of them, but in workboots your feet are perfectly dry. Wildest thing I've ever seen. I wait till they have a two fer sale at the hunting stores.
http://www.smartwool.com/mens/mounta...y-crew-10.html

You can buy the smart wool socks at the LL Bean outlets for quite a savings and also the REI outlet website. They are a favorite of our family too!

RD

[Irish]

Gosh, I wish I would have known that years ago. Hubby threw my one and only cashmere in the laundry and it would fit a doll when it came out. I was so upset with him. I could never afford such an expensive sweater and I found it on clearance for about 25% of the original cost.

[mzkitty]

Awesome, thanks for the tip. You and Laurelayn with her peroxide on seeds tip tonight are fantastic!

[Caver78]

Agreed Mz Kitty!!
If anyone cares my girlfriend figured out to get really old an pre-set stains out of clothes. She takes Lestoil an some water in a mister bottle an pretreats overnight. I didn't believe her either, so she snatched up my old ratty bluejean coat an brought it back looking amazing. So I tried it on old grass an dirt stains in my gardening jeans.....yup....5yr old stains came out.

I've had less sucess on using it on old bloodstains, but that's what peroxides for anyways. Her only caution was to not run clothes thru the dryer if the stain hadn't come out to your satisfaction...re-treat an usually it comes out.

oh...I was clueless so on the 5yr old stains I just poured Lestoil on straight an let it sit overnight. Duh!!

[Double_A]

Fantastic tip!
We've been buying ''Smart Wool'' socks since the late 90's. They are regular wash an dry, rated the best by Backpacker Mag. They are the same as those expensive ''diabetic socks'' an we wear them year round. Of course in the summer you can wring a bucket of sweat out of them, but in workboots your feet are perfectly dry. Wildest thing I've ever seen. I wait till they have a two fer sale at the hunting stores.
http://www.smartwool.com/mens/mounta...y-crew-10.html

Yep

Except for two pair of white socks, every other pair of socks I own are Smart Wool - all of them since about 2001. Feet get soaked in river? Empty boots, remove socks and wring out, put everything back on, feet feel dry and warm within minutes.

[bev]

I assume it was white?

Did you do this - wash in hot, then again with the cream rinse - specifically to get rid of the itchiness? Or was getting rid of the itchiness an unexpected benefit of your trick to restore the size?

Sounds confusing, I know. Hope you understand what I'm asking.

BTW, how did you know about the cream rinse trick? Maybe "Hints from Heloise?"

[packyderms_wife]

never ever use bleach on wool!

[ainitfunny]

I assume it was white?

Did you do this - wash in hot, then again with the cream rinse - specifically to get rid of the itchiness? Or was getting rid of the itchiness an unexpected benefit of your trick to restore the size?

Sounds confusing, I know. Hope you understand what I'm asking.

BTW, how did you know about the cream rinse trick? Maybe "Hints from Heloise?"

No, I dumped a plate of food on me and it was a mess. The sweater came out like new, soft, no stains.
It is sort of a grey/cream color, crew neck, solid color, heavy wool pullover.

I honesty can't remember where I heard about it or if I just tried it because wool is hair and it shrinks because it TANGLES in a mat each hair gripping the other like velcro.

Once in a while, NOT ALWAYS, I have been successful in UNSHRINKING shrunken wool garments after they went through the dryer, BUT YOU HAVE MORE CHANCE OF REVERSING IT IF YOU CATCH IT BEFORE IT GETS THROWN IN THE DRYER.

[gillmanNSF]

Yeah, but, you'll look better in the clothes you wash in Wool-lite. What do I know, I've never owned anything made of wool, but glad you found a way to make it comfortable to wear!

[mzkitty]

Agreed Mz Kitty!!
If anyone cares my girlfriend figured out to get really old an pre-set stains out of clothes. She takes Lestoil an some water in a mister bottle an pretreats overnight. I didn't believe her either, so she snatched up my old ratty bluejean coat an brought it back looking amazing. So I tried it on old grass an dirt stains in my gardening jeans.....yup....5yr old stains came out.

I've had less sucess on using it on old bloodstains, but that's what peroxides for anyways. Her only caution was to not run clothes thru the dryer if the stain hadn't come out to your satisfaction...re-treat an usually it comes out.

oh...I was clueless so on the 5yr old stains I just poured Lestoil on straight an let it sit overnight. Duh!!

Lestoil, eh? I haven't bought that in ages, will get some. But I have had the most wonderful luck with Oxyclean spray in the bottle for stains, especially greasy food-type stains. Just spritz on a little, let it sit maybe 10 minutes and rinse out. The stain is GONE. This is one product that absolutely works as advertised and I wouldn't be without it. That one little bottle has lasted for several years and there's still some left in it. I don't buy the powder type in a bucket for all my laundry loads; the spritz bottle seems to be all I need. For now anyway.

[spinner]

I work with wool all the time, I am a spinner and I process my own fiber. Wool is not hair, exactly. I think you were lucky this time. Wool fibers have scales that catch each other and that is the very basics of why it shrinks. The other factors are rapid temperature changes and agitation.

The best way to wash wool garments is to fill your washer with hot water and mild detergent BEFORE you add the wool garments. Once the water shuts off add your garments, making sure that they are completely submerged, and TURN OFF the washer. Let the garments soak for several hours then drain and spin DO NOT AGITATE. When the washer has finished spinning remove the garments and refill the washer with water that is as close to the same temperature as the garments as possible and add the washed garments to the rinse water. Turn off the washer again and soak for another hour or so to rinse. Drain and spin again. Never let the water run directly onto the wool. Your garments should be very clean and should not shrink at all. If they are not clean after the wash soak then repeat with clean water and a little detergent. You can carefully pretreat any extra bad stains, but as someone else said NEVER use bleach on wool. A little fabric softener or hair conditioner will soften it a little, but if it is coarse, scratchy wool to start with they will only do so much. Some wool garments that feel scratchy are made from wool that has been chemically treated and that is when the softeners will help.

I start with fleece straight off of the sheep and using this method I get my wool very clean and soft.

[ivantherussian03]

I don't want to sound negative or critical but wow........do you have something against sweaters?

I have a lot wool sweaters and I would never wash them so harshly, and I wear mine in all sorts of harsh conditions.

They loose a lot natural properties that make wool warm to begin with, plus they wont last long if you do that type of washing to them often.

[Countrymouse]

Ok, I found a site that said to soak the wool pants (that I called for help for, on my other thread) in COLD water and hair conditioner (or fabric softener, as this site says)---one of the posts above says HOT and another says "the temperature of the wool"---do I need to "heat up" the water to lukewarm? I'm soaking them now...

Also, all these are for sweaters (loose-weave) not pants (a fine weave), so I don't know if it will work, plus I dried them, too---

[Spanky]

CM, When your done give us an update and let us know how it comes out. I can see myself doing the same thing. I would be nice to have a fix for it.

[Melodi]

Pretty much what Spinner said, also I suspect the very loose knit of the sweater may have helped in this case, combined with my having to wonder if it really was 100 percent wool? Sometimes commercial tags say that, but they really are made of either Super-Wash wool, which can be machine washed in warm water up to a point and/or wool that has between 10 and 25 percent other fibers in it. Unless you spun the yarn itself, it can be very hard to know if the label is "cheating" a bit, although good tourist shops or well known brands are less likely to "cheat" than a discount clothing store.

For washing wool garments (or raw fleece) in a European front loading washer, since you can't turn it off, the next best thing is to put it in a mesh garment bag and wash on a wool cycle. If your machine does not have a wool or gentle cycle, don't wash it in the machine, period. I spent extra money to get a German front loader that had a cold water option on it, so I can wash my hand knits on a wool cycle with the cool well water we have here. Many front loaders, at least in Europe, will not go below about 70 degrees and so may shrink some wool items.

Finally, I imagined the pants had a very tight weave, which is why I will be very surprised if they stretch back out again (although it is worth a try) when I full (weavers word for felting/finishing) cloth instead of stomping on it in urine as they did in the Middle Ages, I wash the item in warm water and then throw into a hot dryer for between 2 and 10 minutes until it "fulls" (aka felts) up down and causes the fibers to catch on each other to make a solid fiber. Otherwise the cloth would be very open and full of gaps, great for a lace shawl or wall hanging but useless for durable fabric.

This is sadly what has happened to these pants, and unlike a knit sweater, the fabric would have been a lot tighter already (and fulled some in the factory already).

But give it a try and please let us know if it works, there is always more to learn and some surprises are wonderful.

[FarmerJohn]

Now you have a great sweater for a six-year-old.

Do you know a six-year-old?

Using the same method, I once turned a nice sweater that fit my three-year-old daughter into a nice sweater that fit one of her dolls.

[Be Well]

I have learned the hard way to wash all wool clothing (and we have a lot of it) not only in cold water but on the gentlest setting possible, as vigorous agitating and spinning also "fulls" the wool as Melodi described, as well as hot water.

And then try to stretch or re-shape it as needed, drying flat for sweaters helps. I had a beautiful Nepali wool jacket and even though I washed it cold water I did not realize I shoudl use the most gentle setting and it shrunk a teeny bit, just enough so that it is a little too snug. Maybe I should try again and stretch it out.