You can’t wash a woolen sweater with the rest of the clothes, because wool is a very delicate, albeit resistant to dirt. To care for it, you will need to purchase special chemicals, as well as observe the conditions necessary for gentle cleaning and preservation of wool fibers without deformation and damage.
Features of washing wool
Wool items are extremely soft and warm, but these qualities are easily ruined by improper care. Often, after drying, woolen clothing sits or stretches, and it is impossible to restore its original appearance.
To keep the woolen thing in its original form, it is important to remember 4 rules:
- Frequent washing and prolonged soaking leads to stretching of woolen products, so you need to wear them very carefully. If you protect your clothing from excessive pollution, do not rub it on dirty surfaces, cleaning will be required much less often.
- It is unacceptable to rub or twist clothes from wool: because of this, the delicate fibers of the material stretch and tear, which cannot but affect the condition of the product as a whole.
- To wash the wool sweater correctly, you need to choose the appropriate tool. Liquid gels or powders for woolen products are best suited for this purpose.
- After the main wash, it is recommended to rinse the clothes in water with the addition of a baby conditioner or glycerin (2 tsp. Per 1 bucket of water).
Ordinary powder is not recommended for washing wool clothes: from its aggressive effect, wool fibers are compressed and deformed. If a special means for washing the sweater was not at hand, it is better to give preference to ordinary hair shampoo.
At what temperature should a wool sweater be washed?
An important condition for washing is the temperature of the water. It should not go beyond 25-30 ℃. Under the influence of cold or hot water, the wool sits down.
Wash and rinse the product at the same water temperature. If you dip a wool sweater alternately in warm and cold water, it will shrink.
Handwash
It is advisable to wash a wool sweater or sweater manually without using force. Manual cleaning removes dirt as delicately as possible. It is important not to squeeze, do not twist the product.
Rules for hand washing things from wool:
- The cleaning agent should be previously dissolved in water heated to 30 ℃.
- Before you dip the sweater in water, you need to turn it inside out.
- If there are buttonholes on the jacket, they must be swept away to prevent stretching.
- Soaking the product in water is strictly not recommended; it is better to start washing immediately.
- The sweater should be carefully immersed in a solution of soap and squeezed with gentle movements until the pollution disappears.
- Before and after rinsing, the product must be slightly wrung out and wait until the water drains.
It is recommended to spin the washed wool sweater as follows:
- put the product on the bottom of the bathtub or large bowl, having previously set it at an angle;
- gently press on top of the sweater so that the glass water
- pour or drain water;
- leave for 15 minutes to glass and the rest of the water.
If the sweater did not get dirty, but absorbed an unpleasant smell, then it is enough to simply ventilate it by hanging it on the balcony.
Machine wash
If you don’t have time or desire to wash a wool sweater by hand, you can use the automatic machine. In this case, you should set the mode of hand or delicate washing with a minimum spin or without it at all (on some models there is a special “Wool” mode).
Rules for washing wool in a washing machine:
- Acrylic and semi-synthetic products tolerate machine wash delicately, which cannot be said about clothes made from natural wool. Therefore, before washing, it is better to pay attention to the label on which recommendations for caring for the item of clothing are painted.
- The temperature of the washing water in the machine should not exceed 30 ℃.
- Do not wash clothes made of wool with products from other, coarser materials.
- Washing delicate fabrics should not last longer than 40 minutes.
How to dry woolen things?
Drying woolen clothes in the machine is strictly prohibited, this can cause severe shrinkage and deformation. It is better to lay out the washed product in a horizontal position on a special dryer. A terry towel is recommended under the sweater, which will absorb excess moisture.
If the sweater is too big, is it possible to specifically reduce it when washing?
It is possible, but it carries a risk. Perhaps the main part will fit, and the sleeves will be too short. But if you are willing to take a chance, just warm the water to 45 ℃ so that the sweater gives a little shrink.
How to return to the settled sweater the original size?
The wool sweater that shrunk should be ironed from the inside through wet gauze, then gently stretched to the initial size and blow dry.
What should I do if the product is greasy or has a greasy stain on it?
Greasy stains from wool can be removed with mustard powder. To do this, dry mustard is pre-soaked in boiling water in a ratio of 1: 1. The gruel is infused for 2 hours, after which it is filtered through dense gauze. The finished solution is mixed with warm water, and clothes for washing are placed there.
So, washing wool clothes is not the easiest task. But it’s enough to remember just a few rules so that your favorite little thing becomes cleaner, but at the same time does not lose its shape and original color.