On the Wool Used in the Collections: Its Types, Care Instructions, and…
ON THE WOOL USED IN OUR COLLECTIONS: ITS TYPES, CARE INSTRUCTIONS AND…
…and what to do if “life happened”?
The further we go, the more often we “treat” our collections with wool pieces.
Alongside classic sheep’s wool, we use mohair yarns, which lately we often replace with super-kid mohair—a yarn that makes the knit even lighter and is much gentler on the skin.
We also deeply love merino wool. Garments made from it have very special properties—as I sometimes like to joke—you can buy one merino wool suit and wear it all season long. Thanks to its thermoregulating properties and exceptional breathability, it’s very hard to overheat or get cold in merino clothing.
In this collection, we also gently introduced alpaca wool for the first time, which is said to be up to six times warmer than regular wool! This is due to the special structure of the fibre: the wool strands contain tiny air pockets along their length, which reflect thermal radiation. Alpaca wool is soft, and fibres under 30 microns are considered non-itchy when worn.
So in this collection, we started modestly with two pieces, but we are already looking forward to customer feedback—and we’ve practically already reserved a place for this yarn in future collections, where we knit long-sleeve sweaters from it.
Wool is goodness and joy.
However… here begins the most important part of today’s text.
If you want wool garments to bring joy for a long time, you MUST be able to recite these three care rules—even if someone wakes you up at night:
Washing temperature up to 30°C.
Spin speed up to 400 RPM. No more.
After setting these, double-check three times that they are correct.
IMPORTANT! It is commonly believed that wool garments can be washed on a “hand wash” cycle. However, in my experience, depending on the washing machine model, the hand-wash mode can reach up to 800 RPM and 40°C.
And one more very friendly piece of advice: DO NOT trust the “I’ll just hand wash it quickly” method.
For our bodies, 40°C feels warm, 30°C even slightly cool. But we don’t have thermometers in our fingertips, and I truly know real-life cases where “gentle hand washing” in what felt like lukewarm water ended in disaster—and the wool garment shrank to child size.
And what if it’s already “too late”?
And you’re holding a shrunken wool piece in your hands?
Depending on the type of wool and the “type of accident” (too high temperature or too strong spin), the garment can still sometimes be rehabilitated (although success strongly depends on whether it has already dried or if the “tragedy” happened just moments ago).
What to do:
• Fill a bowl with lukewarm water and add baby shampoo or hair conditioner. If you’re trying to save a natural wool sweater, you’ll need quite a lot of conditioner—about one third of a cup.
• Soak the garment in this mixture for 10 minutes. After that, do NOT rinse—just gently squeeze out the water.
• Lay a towel on the floor or another flat surface and place the sweater on it. Roll it up so the towel absorbs the water. The towel should be damp, not soaked.
• Lay a fresh dry towel on a flat surface. Place the sweater on it and gently stretch it in the areas where it has shrunk (length/sleeves/width). Do not move it again until it is completely dry.
V.
