In a tangle
I confess I hate itchy wool. Some might say I'm in the wrong business but I say I'm sure there's a way I can change the itchiness. Recently I tried this by following a suggestion on Pinterest. The results were interesting.
So I had been given this brilliant wool by my sister. It was super chunky and great for a blanket of some kind, wonderfully colourful but superbly itchy. The suggestion I followed was to loosen the ball of wool, wash it on a delicates wash in a laundry bag and then tumble dry it. I was dubious about the last bit because the ball band said not to tumble dry. However, I was brave and gave it a go on a delicate setting which I'm lucky enough to have on my tumble dryer.
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The wool before the treatment and in preperation for the wash[/caption]
I followed the instructions to the letter expecting a beautiful fluffy wool to appear by the end. Instead two things happened: the wool didn't dry properly and whilst I admit it was a little fluffier, it wasn't as soft as I'd hoped.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2437"]
First attempt[/caption]
Perhaps I was a little naïve but I followed the instructions to the end. When I discovered it wasn't dry I pooped it into the airing cupboard for a week and looked again. It still wasn't what I wanted so I did it all again. It worked in that it because softer but I ended up with this:
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A tangle and a half[/caption]
As you can imagine it took a little while for me to untangle this but it was worth it. The wool is much nicer to handle and whilst not soft it's certainly better so I'm quite pleased. As I wound it into balls I discovered that the itchy fibres had come off and caused a lot of the tangle. I ended up with great wads of fluff which had come off the outside of the wool. I could feel this was part of the itchiness so was pleased to discard it.
In the end I was happy. Ok it took two washes, tumbles drys and airing cupboard visits over two weeks but it was dry, smelt nice and felt a lot nicer to work. I am now making a hexagon blanket which you can see the start of below.
So I had been given this brilliant wool by my sister. It was super chunky and great for a blanket of some kind, wonderfully colourful but superbly itchy. The suggestion I followed was to loosen the ball of wool, wash it on a delicates wash in a laundry bag and then tumble dry it. I was dubious about the last bit because the ball band said not to tumble dry. However, I was brave and gave it a go on a delicate setting which I'm lucky enough to have on my tumble dryer.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="3000"]
The wool before the treatment and in preperation for the wash[/caption]I followed the instructions to the letter expecting a beautiful fluffy wool to appear by the end. Instead two things happened: the wool didn't dry properly and whilst I admit it was a little fluffier, it wasn't as soft as I'd hoped.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2437"]
First attempt[/caption]Perhaps I was a little naïve but I followed the instructions to the end. When I discovered it wasn't dry I pooped it into the airing cupboard for a week and looked again. It still wasn't what I wanted so I did it all again. It worked in that it because softer but I ended up with this:
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2999"]
A tangle and a half[/caption]As you can imagine it took a little while for me to untangle this but it was worth it. The wool is much nicer to handle and whilst not soft it's certainly better so I'm quite pleased. As I wound it into balls I discovered that the itchy fibres had come off and caused a lot of the tangle. I ended up with great wads of fluff which had come off the outside of the wool. I could feel this was part of the itchiness so was pleased to discard it.
In the end I was happy. Ok it took two washes, tumbles drys and airing cupboard visits over two weeks but it was dry, smelt nice and felt a lot nicer to work. I am now making a hexagon blanket which you can see the start of below.
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