Preparing new woolies

Hey all,

Just wondered if anyone has an idiot's guide to preparing and then caring for woolies? I've read around, but I've got a few questions:

1) From what I understand it's a pea sized amount of solid lanolin dissolved in very hot water, then added to a bowl of warm water. Woolies are submerged and left overnight, then excess water is squeezed out with a towel and then they're put somewhere warm to dry - not directly on a radiator or in direct sunlight though. Is this correct? I've got a radiator hanger - could I peg them to this so that they're not touching the radiator, but are close?

2) When you add the lanolin to a bowl of warm water, how much is a 'bowl'? A washing up bowl size? If so, how full? Or for a bowl that size, how much extra lanolin would be needed?

3) I've read that new woolies need to be lanolised up to three times before being up to overnight use. Does this mean they go through the wash/lanolise/dry cycle three times? (i.e. dried between each treatment?).

4)I'm confused about the washing of woolies. Everywhere agrees against rubbing as this will cause felting, but that shouldn't be needed unless there's a poo type mark I'm guessing?

5) How exactly do you wash the woolies? I've read that you can use a wool wash, and that you can add a few drops of that in with the lanolin, so that they're basically soaking in the cleaning solution and lanolin at the same time - true? I've also read that you can buy a wool wash with lanolin already in, but that might not get them as bombproof as using a separate lanolin and wash? I've also read that you don't need a special wool wash, and a few drops of baby bubble bath (Johnson's or something similar) works just as well instead - true?

If you've got this far - yay! Please let me know how you do it, I'm very new to wool but hope to start with this baby and am already planning on knitting my next pair of longies.

I use about 1/2 tsp of solid lanolin, a squirt of washing up liquid (or baby shampoo, but you need something with the lanolin or it won't dissolve) in a mug with boiling water, stir until the lanolin has dissolved, the liquid will look milky. I then add this to lukewarm water in a washing up bowl.

I wouldn't hang to dry, your wool will stretch out. Ideally lay it flat. I lay mine out on a towel, shape and leave to dry. I sometimes turn it over and move it to another part of the towel. I usually spin my wool in the machine on the lowest setting and then lay flat, but rolling in a towel and stamping over it does the job. Just don't wring the wool.

I used to use wool after one lanolising.

I wouldn't rub unless necessary. And then I used to rub with a wool wash bar rather than rubbing the wool against itself iyswim.

Some people use a wool wash and lanolin all-in-one. I prefer to use a wool wash bar (although more recently I've been using Ecover's delicates wash as it's suitable for wool and easier to find than other washes imo). I then use solid lanolin, as above. I find this far more effective than all-in-one. The detergent you mentioned in your last question is necessary, not as a wash, but to dissolve the lanolin. You can use baby shampoo (you'd have to pay me to use Johnson's for anything though ) or olive oil soap works well too - under £1 in wholefood shops/holland and barrett iirc for a bar of Oliva.

Everything that Shadow said, The lanolin tends to protect the wool to a certain extent so it doesn't need heavy duty washing IYSWIM. Poo tends to come of pretty easily especially if dealt with straight away. Playing outside which results in mud stains is more difficult to get out and I know some people use the delicate/hand wash cycle on the washing machine to combat stains although this generally seems to remove all of the lanolin meaning that you have to start from scratch with the lanolin building up.

I always used my woolies overnight with only one lanolising but the key is to make sure you have an absorbent enough nappy

I hand washed with olive soap or soap flakes, rinsed thoroughly, lanolised (soak for few hours), then did an extra (cold) rinse and a fast spin in my machine. I used imse vimse wool cure to lanolise, but alternated with liquid lanolin/detergent. Too impatient for more than one lanolin soak before using!

My logic for the fast spin was that the centrifugal force kept them pressed to the sides, whereas a slow spin had them flopping about more, which creates friction which may lead to felting. No problems with felting til we reached 'large' sized bedtime wool, which obviously saw a lot more wear than the smalls and meds.

I adapt this method for washing wool clothes now and it works fine. No felted wool here!