I asked Veronika @veronikagphotography one of our lovely Wool Lovers how she washes and stores her heavy wool for Summer.
In my family we wear wool all year round, but put away the heavy and less used pieces for the summer so the moths don't get to them. If you have seen moths in your house its always worth freezing your wool after washing.
Over to Veronika....
"I must admit I've really learned more about how to wash and store wool properly since having kids and getting more wool pieces for them. Before that I was a little more careless and shrunk a few of my sweaters and socks in the washer or dryer to pretty much doll size and had more pieces with moth holes in them because I didn't store them properly!
Following my mistakes I have learnt that cleaning and storing wool properly is definitely worth it!
If a wool piece is really dirty, for example muddy wool felted pants, I let it dry and gently brush it off with a brush. I actually do that through the whole cold season and wash it just once a year before storing.
Wool really does not need to be washed often and brushing off dirt and airing pieces through the season is always best.
1. Start with filling up your sink or bowl with lukewarm water and adding your wool detergent of choice. I prefer non toxic without perfume, my favourites are Eucalan with essential oils or Ulrich.
Add your wool and let it soak for 10 minutes or so.
Gently agitate - massage your pieces, no hard squeezing, tugging, twisting.
My first water is usually pretty dirty, I roll each piece under the water letting the water drain, squishing each piece gently before adding new water to rinse, usually twice.
2. When the last rinse is done I carefully squish out excess water again not twisting like you would normally do with cotton, for example.
I have clean towels ready to roll up my pieces in to soak up more excess water.
3. Then I have more clean towels ready laying flat on the table or a deck and I gently unroll my pieces and lay them flat on the towels.
Now is the time to shape your pieces before letting them dry, be especially careful with more open weave styles, again no pulling just following the natural shape of the garment.
Never hang wool pieces; they will stretch in odd shapes!
4. When your pieces are completely dry, store your wool safely. In our house that means airtight containers because even though i've never seen a single wool moth here, one year I took some wool pants out of the closet and they had holes in them like someone had cut them out with scissors!
Sadly, this means I can't store them in my beautiful glass door armoire so they can make my heart skip a beat every time I walk past them. My armoire is saved for those pieces we use often through the warm season as well , like some sweaters or base layers. We still use lots of wool through Spring and Summer to layer and for sitting outdoors.
When I store my wool I also like to add lavender sachets or cedar blocks for a little extra protection against pests and also this adds a nice scent as a surprise for when we get them out again."
All words and images courtesy of @veronikaphotography