Washer with wool program

#1

Hello! You all always have such wonderful advice, and I thought I would turn to you with a question about washing wool.

I’ve only ever had success handwashing my hand knits, but I watch some podcasters who swear by their washer’s wool program. I tried my own washer (an OLD front loading Electrolux) on its wool program once and felting occurred :sob:

We are now in a situation where we need a new washer and I am wondering if you all have any luck with using your own washer’s will program. If so, what is the make and model?

I find that I dread washing my hand knits because they wet so many towels and take forever to dry because I can never get water out of them like a washer could with its spinning ability. If there is no good washer, I will probably invest in a big salad spinner or hand wash laundry system so that I can get more water out of my knits before laying flat.

Thank you all!

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#2

Can you not put it in your washer and only run the spin cycle? Maybe only until you hear the water quit running out, or just for one minute, or something like that? That would get most of the water out, and then you could still lay it out on towels to finish drying.

I’ve done this with wool-linen blend fabric that I hand washed, and it works well, but I haven’t tried it with hand knits.

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#3

I think I tried this around the same time I felted the other stuff and also had some felting! I believe I used garment bags too. I think my machine is just too vigorous?

#4

I like Colocro’s method for spinning out water. Usually 2-4 minutes is enough to get most of the water out. I use a wool soak then spin out the water in the machine for all my handknit sweaters.

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#5

I’ll bet I did it longer than 2-4 minutes. Maybe I will try again with a non precious item.

What machines do you have? Front of top load?

#6

I have a top-loader.
When the felting occurred were you using a superwash wool and following the ball band washing instructions?

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#7

No not super wash. Always a wool soap and following temp instructions. But these podcasters supposedly use their machines for all wool, no matter what kind!

#8

I don’t see how that can work with wool. The agitation is likely to cause the scales on wool to lock together.

#9

I didn’t either, but both are reputable sources (in this case, Andrea from Fruity Knitting and also Knittingtraditions). I’m thinking they have very gentle European machines!

#10

I acquired a salad spinner solely for spinning my knits. For me it wasn’t effective. I did much better squashing things in the bottom of the sink or a tub to extract as much water as possible. YMMV I’ve also put the wet thing in a rectangular tub with the wet item at one end and propped it up to tilt the tub. I left it to drain and when I came back quite a bit of water had run out to the other end. Even just leaving something in the sink with drain uncovered will get rid of a fair amount of water.

I wouldn’t trust hand wash knits in the old top loader I use. It won’t felt things well but it would ruin a hand wash sweater.

#11

Be careful with this! I had a fleece of shetland lamb to die for. I washed it in a big tub & decided to put it in some netting, & spin the excess water out. I got distracted & the washer, set to low level, started to fill & agitate. I heard it & ran in there as fast ss I could, but it was too late. That gorgeous fleece was completely ruined. .I had missed the little dot on the knob that was the last spin. I tried to save it, but couldn’t save any of it. It was irrevocably felted up.

So if you do spin your wet garment in a machine, to remove excess water, dont walk away from it. Stand right there to be sure it does not fill & agitate…

Then to add insult to injury, the other lamb fleece I bought at the same time was sent with some of my home grown angora to a mill. The mill did a great job. Beautiful blending & carding. But one of the guy’s father had just started a spinning business, having bought commercial equipment. It had been a carpet yarn machine, which should not have made any difference, he could have set it for much softer, less twist. But he would not listen to his son - and he spun it like the seller of the machine told him. Like for carpet. Way overspun. Made it hard, not displaying the beauty of either of the fibers at all. Might as well have been binding twine.
Another gorgeous fleece ruined. I knitted a sweater from it and it never softened up… It wore like iron. I wound up dying it dark brown because I got it so dirty wearing it for a knock-around sweater. With that super fine lamb & angora it was super warm tho.

#12

I recently read advice on a wool company’s website not to use a garment bag. (I had been using one with socks, so have stopped doing that.)

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#13

I have a Miele washing machine, top loader, that has wool settings. I have used it for socks (Opal and Regia sock wool) and for commercial knits that had machine washing instructions on the care labels.

Recently read advice not to use a garment bag for knits on one of the Norwegian wool companies’ websites.

I haven’t used my machine for superwash wool (which I don’t use) or for wool that is naturally machine washable.

I did once spin a large, heavy “handwash only” woollen item in it, and I’m sorry to say it felted a wee bit.

I suppose washing a swatch is the only way to tell, although would a swatch behave the same as a garment? A garment has the potential to tangle and rub against itself in a way that a swatch doesn’t.

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#14

Do you know why they said to not use bags? I put my socks in bags to avoid tossing them in the dryer and missing one or more. They’re superwash. I’ve had not problems.

#15

I have a Haier front load machine which is programmable to change length of wash, temp, spin speed etc all separately for each wash. The spin only pogramme can be altered from 400 to 1400 in increments of 200. 400 is pretty low.

Having said that I can’t say that wool wouldn’t felt in it. For one thing I have decided I’m only using washable yarn from now on, because I have someone else do the laundry and it’s impossible to direct another person exactly what to do. My cashmere merino silk blend which was gorgeous (care instruction was machine washable on 30 mild/gentle) is destroyed - I think it was fabric softener that was put in and shouldn’t have been but I’m not experimenting to find out. I’m remaking a version of that ruined sweater but now in recycled acrylic, and I’m sure that must survive the wash.

Perhaps message the companies you are considering buying a washing mahine from and ask if the machine can do a spin only and at what speeds?

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#16

Thanks to all. Sounds like the consensus is that it doesn’t sound safe to use a washer for hand kits (esp not super wash), unless perhaps for a gentle spin!

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#17

I have a top load washer with the basket for delicates hooked to the lid… runs water through without any agitation.

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#18

I soak my wool knits in the sink with a product that doesn’t need to be rinsed. Then I drain the water and squeeze out excess water from the knit. Then I roll it up in a big bath towel and put it on the bathroom floor and stand on it and walk on it. Usually it only takes one towel. I then block and dry on drying mats. I would never put a wool or wool blend in the washer. Why take the chance?

#19

Superwash in the washer, not the dryer, works fine for me. I put my superwash socks in a mesh bag and run them through a load done in cold water, normal for agitation and spin. When washed out of the bag they did fine. Superwash wool is done two ways. One chemically removes the scales and the other coats the yarn. Chemical removal of scales is permanent. Coating can eventually wear off. I know of no way to know which process was used to produce superwash yarn. One day my socks may come out of the washer felted. Something I made with superwash sock yarn got into a load of towels run on hot. The knitted item was OK, didn’t seem damaged, but the hot water might have removed coating if that’s how the yarn was processed. Eventually the color from the yarn that bled onto my white towels tinting them blue washed out. I might have bleached the towels.

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#20

I believe it was the friction factor; however, the advice was for handknits generally, not for socks.

As sock wool is pretty sturdy, I don’t think the garment bag would do any harm.

I was putting my dad’s socks in a garment bag and nothing bad happened. I stopped doing it because there were more socks than would fit in my one garment bag and I thought they needed to swoosh round in the water a bit more to get clean.

I will just have a look and see whether I can find the advice again.

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