[fishertw]

For the past three days, I have been washing my lambswool sweaters from O'Connells as a matter of at least annual practice. Having moved from a large house to a small unit in a retirement community I was anxious as to how it would go. In our old house I had an open vaulted ceiling with a walkway and railing over the living room that had a wood stove. Heat would gently rise up as I laid the damp sweaters over the rail to slowly dry. Recently I bought an old fashioned expanding clothes drying rack that seems to work just as well. I use woolite in cold water in the kitchen sink then rinse the sweaters about three more times in cold water then roll them up twice in fresh towels to get as much water out as possible. Then hang them for 12=15 hours on the rack. I've had about 6-8 of these v neck sweaters for nearly ten years and after this treatment they look as good as new. Bits of dirt and environmental junk are gone, loft of the knit is renewed and they are fresh for another 15-20 wearings.
Just a hint for those who like to extend the life of things.
Tom

 

[triklops55]

For the past three days, I have been washing my lambswool sweaters from O'Connells as a matter of at least annual practice. Having moved from a large house to a small unit in a retirement community I was anxious as to how it would go. In our old house I had an open vaulted ceiling with a walkway and railing over the living room that had a wood stove. Heat would gently rise up as I laid the damp sweaters over the rail to slowly dry. Recently I bought an old fashioned expanding clothes drying rack that seems to work just as well. I use woolite in cold water in the kitchen sink then rinse the sweaters about three more times in cold water then roll them up twice in fresh towels to get as much water out as possible. Then hang them for 12=15 hours on the rack. I've had about 6-8 of these v neck sweaters for nearly ten years and after this treatment they look as good as new. Bits of dirt and environmental junk are gone, loft of the knit is renewed and they are fresh for another 15-20 wearings.
Just a hint for those who like to extend the life of things.
Tom

Could you please share your washing process? What detergent do you use? Thanks!

 

[fishertw]

Could you please share your washing process? What detergent do you use? Thanks!

I use Woolite liquid and cold tap water. I loosely stir/push the sweaters back and forth in the sink until they are really wet and infused with the water that the detergent has been diluted in. I use a capfull of the detergent .After they have been rubbed around for a couple of minutes in the sink, I rinse them about three times, also in cold water until there appear to be no suds left in the water. I then sort of ball the sweaters up and press as much water as possible out of them. I do not wring them out but just the balling the up and pressing water out gets a good bit of water out. I then lay them onto a towel on the counter as blocked in form as possible, ( they generally fit pretty well on a large sized bath towel) and begin tightly rolling the towel up from the bottom of the sweater to the top. I do this two times which generally extracts most of the water then gently lay them out onto the rungs of the drying rack. I usually turn them over after about 6 or so hours and then they are usually preetty dry by that time. The room temp and proximity to a modest heat source will determine how quickly they dry. Do not put them directly over the heat source. Just air drying in warm air works well. Hope this helps. I have been using this method for about ten years.

 

[Vecchio Vespa]

For the past three days, I have been washing my lambswool sweaters from O'Connells as a matter of at least annual practice. Having moved from a large house to a small unit in a retirement community I was anxious as to how it would go. In our old house I had an open vaulted ceiling with a walkway and railing over the living room that had a wood stove. Heat would gently rise up as I laid the damp sweaters over the rail to slowly dry. Recently I bought an old fashioned expanding clothes drying rack that seems to work just as well. I use woolite in cold water in the kitchen sink then rinse the sweaters about three more times in cold water then roll them up twice in fresh towels to get as much water out as possible. Then hang them for 12=15 hours on the rack. I've had about 6-8 of these v neck sweaters for nearly ten years and after this treatment they look as good as new. Bits of dirt and environmental junk are gone, loft of the knit is renewed and they are fresh for another 15-20 wearings.
Just a hint for those who like to extend the life of things.
Tom

And being sure to stow them for summer clean is the absolute best way of protecting against moth damage, better than cedar or mothballs.

 

[William Kazak]

I place my sweaters into archival photo storage boxes. They come in various sizes.16x20 for example. Each into a separate box. I label each box. I also put the sizes measurements on each label.

 

[wharrell]

Pioneer Jumbo Scrapbook Storage Box, Black, 14.75 Inch x 13 Inch x 3.75 Inch https://a.co/d/dQPtZbF

 

[CC3]

For the past three days, I have been washing my lambswool sweaters from O'Connells as a matter of at least annual practice. Having moved from a large house to a small unit in a retirement community I was anxious as to how it would go. In our old house I had an open vaulted ceiling with a walkway and railing over the living room that had a wood stove. Heat would gently rise up as I laid the damp sweaters over the rail to slowly dry. Recently I bought an old fashioned expanding clothes drying rack that seems to work just as well. I use woolite in cold water in the kitchen sink then rinse the sweaters about three more times in cold water then roll them up twice in fresh towels to get as much water out as possible. Then hang them for 12=15 hours on the rack. I've had about 6-8 of these v neck sweaters for nearly ten years and after this treatment they look as good as new. Bits of dirt and environmental junk are gone, loft of the knit is renewed and they are fresh for another 15-20 wearings.
Just a hint for those who like to extend the life of things.
Tom

Excellent. I've done similar although not every year, and hanging them out doesn't work here. Bravo for sharing.

 

[Cliffnopus]

For the past three days, I have been washing my lambswool sweaters from O'Connells as a matter of at least annual practice. Having moved from a large house to a small unit in a retirement community I was anxious as to how it would go. In our old house I had an open vaulted ceiling with a walkway and railing over the living room that had a wood stove. Heat would gently rise up as I laid the damp sweaters over the rail to slowly dry. Recently I bought an old fashioned expanding clothes drying rack that seems to work just as well. I use woolite in cold water in the kitchen sink then rinse the sweaters about three more times in cold water then roll them up twice in fresh towels to get as much water out as possible. Then hang them for 12=15 hours on the rack. I've had about 6-8 of these v neck sweaters for nearly ten years and after this treatment they look as good as new. Bits of dirt and environmental junk are gone, loft of the knit is renewed and they are fresh for another 15-20 wearings.
Just a hint for those who like to extend the life of things.
Tom

Congrats, that's exactly how to do it right.