Everything Wool

I love Peace Fleece yarn. The colors are so rich and unique. Most Peace Fleece yarn shades are heathered or blended with other shades or other colors to achieve amazing depth of color. Spun with 30 percent mohair, this 70 percent wool yarn is great for sweaters, booties, wool diaper covers/soakers or felting. It is durable and gets softer with washing. It is very popular for making felted purses as well as for wool diaper covers.

Felting (also known as fulling) wool fabric is simple. In fact, many people have discovered the principles of felting wool by accident when they washed a favorite wool sweater into doll clothing! Felting is a process of shinking the wool fibers and allowing the little scales on the fibers to interlock, making a tighter fabric that is more water resistant. Wool that is tightly felted will not ravel when cut, so it can be used for making purses or other items where you might want to use a decorative non-raveling edge.

Wool felts with:

• Temperature changes
• Friction
• Alkalinity (pH of the water)

So, to felt wool all you need to do is provide heat, agitation in the washing machine, and if desired some pH changing detergent (also known as laundry detergent!). I usually don’t bother with detergent, but occasionally I’ll add a small amount of detergent if I want to be sure that there is no extra dye in the fabric that will come out later or if I just want to make sure the project is REALLY felted.

Felting wool is kind of like ripening a banana. Green, green, green, brown! If you are not careful you can miss the moment when the wool goes from perfectly felted to oops! If you are felting wool fabric for use in a coat or wool diaper cover or something where the idea is just thick and water resistant then it does not matter how felted it gets so you can be less careful. If you are felting a wool sweater to cut up for a diaper cover or if you are felting something where the dimensions matter, then you need to stop the washer and check it from time to time so it does not shrink too much. I also learned to watch out for thick fabrics. Some of them get too thick and stiff if I overfelt them.

Wool blends will stop felting at some point, 100 percent wool will shrink much more. I prefer 100 percent wool although you can felt wool with up to 20 percent synthetic fiber in it. Wool that has been treated so it is washable will not shrink or felt much.

I felt wool fabric (or wool sweaters) by putting them in the washing machine and running hot water. I use just enough water to cover the item, so usually I set it on small load. You get more agitation with less water. Then, I set it to agitate on high. If it is something where size matters, I check it every 5 minutes or so. Stop agitating when it gets close to the right size or thickness as you will get some more shrinking when it rinses, a little more when it spins out and even more if you put it in the dryer. Rinsing is only necessary if you used detergent, so you can skip right to the spin cycle. My washing machine adds a little cold water during the spin cycle to get rid of any suds. It took me a while to figure out WHY it was felting my wool so much more on spin. Changing from hot to cold water will cause the wool fibers to shrink up some more.

If I want to really, really felt some fabric (such as thickening wool crepe up for a bed pad) I let it go through a whole washer cycle and then throw it in the dryer to shrink a bit more.

I get my wool fabric cheap at Fabric.com. They have nice wool flannel, crepe, and other 100 percent wool fabrics for as little as $4.98 per yard.

One of the most common questions I hear about wool soakers is what type of wool yarn to use. What yarn you choose is partly dependent on what pattern you are using. Whether you prefer to knit or crochet, there are a lot of wool diaper cover and wool soaker patterns available on the internet. I’ll share some of my favorite paid and free wool soaker patterns in future posts. There are a lot of popular brands of wool yarn available. One of my favorites is Peace Fleece. It is durable, comes in beautiful rich colors and has a great story behind it. However, it is not as readily available as some others and is a bit more expensive than some of the more common brands.

Here are three common brands of wool yarn that you can find in many craft stores or online.

Lion Brand® Fishermen’s Wool Natural -100% Wool is a great workhorse wool yarn. It is inexpensive, durable and does not pill as easily as some softer wool. It is not as soft as merino, but is soft enough for making great wool soakers.

Patons Classic Merino Wool Yarn – 100% Wool Paton’s Merino Wool is soft, inexpensive and fun to work with. It comes in some really great colors as well as classic colors such as black, navy and natural. I like to play around with the natural color Paton’s Merino Wool because it dyes well. It is a good, inexpensive yarn for kids to learn to KoolAid dye with. Paton’s Merino Wool is very soft. It does pill some and it is not quite as durable as Fisherman’s Wool. While it is worsted weight, it is a bit finer than other worsteds so it has a finer gauge. I have used it for both crochet and knit soakers.

Patons Classic Merino Wool Yarn comes in a lot of great colors. I knit these longies with Paton’s Good Earth colorway. I also really like the look of their Denim Marl.

Wool fabric can be expensive, so I love it when I find a great sale. I found some wonderful 100 percent wool crepe on sale for $4.98 a yard. Wool crepe felts nicely without getting too thick. It stays soft and flexible yet still makes really nice water resistant bed pads, cloth diaper covers, and jackets. Of course, you don’t have to felt wool crepe to use it. Wool crepe makes nice skirts, pants or even diaper covers (if you choose not to felt it, just use two layers).

I find a lot of nice wool fabrics at Fabric.com. They also have really good deals on silk, flannel, and other fabrics. I have found some real bargains in their $1.95 a yard clearance section. Best of all, they have really cheap shipping, if it is your first order they will even ship your whole order for $2.95. Just use code FIRST. Many times you can get the whole order shipped for free if you order at least $35 worth of fabric.

Look for fabric that is at least 80 percent wool for most projects. For wool diaper covers and wool longies (wool pants that function as diaper covers as well as pants) , you want fabric that is as close as possible to 100% wool. For felting, 100% wool works best as well.

Look for quality fabrics, even for discount wool fabric. Cheap fabrics can be a bad deal, even at low prices. For some projects you can upcycle old wool skirts, jackets or sweaters for your crafting needs. That is another reason I like Fabric.com, their discount wool fabric is still great quality.

Wool makes a wonderful, breathable and easy to care for cloth diaper cover. Really. Caring for your wool diaper covers is easy, just start with a good wool wash with lots of lanolin (such as Sheepish Grins Wool Wash Bars or Sheepish Grins Foaming Wool Wash). Then, add a lanolin product such as Sheepish Grins solid lanolin, liquid lanolin or Creamy Lanolin Spray.

Lanolizing a wool diaper cover, shorties or longies takes just a few minutes, then you can soak the items in lanolin overnight if you want to be sure they are thoroughly lanolized. Air drying does take some time, so you will want to have several wool diaper covers in rotation. This way you will always have 2 or 3 in use, one airing out, one drying, and one you need to wash. While wool diaper covers can go weeks between washing – you will find that they are easier to use if you have at least 3-5 in use at any one time.

How to Lanolize a Wool Diaper Cover

Wool diaper covers and longies only need to be lanolized every few weeks unless they get stains on them. You’ll know when they need lanolizing because they will start to leak, smell funny or get stiff.

First, wash your wool items in a little bit of mild baby shampoo or a wool wash designed for wool diaper covers. A wool wash with lanolin will reduce the frequency that you need to lanolize your covers. When washing, don’t agitate or shake the items as this can cause them to felt. Keep the water temperature as even as possible. Rapid shifts in temperature can cause the wool to shrink.

Second, gently rinse the wool items in the same temperature of water as was used in washing. Squeeze water out and lay the items on a dry towel. Roll the towel up and press the water out of the wool diaper covers.  Let the items rest in the towel while you prepare the lanolin.

Third, prepare your lanolin mixture. If you are using liquid or solid lanolin, add a little hot water to a clean sink or bowl. Add about 1 teaspoon lanolin and a few drops of baby shampoo. Swirl it around until it mixes into the water. Your water will now appear milky. There should not be any lumps of lanolin floating around or you’ll end up with stains on the covers. Add just enough warm water to submerge the cover or longies.

Fourth, place the diaper covers and longies into the lanolin mixture and let them sit for 15 minutes or longer. If the items are really in need of lanolizing, soak them longer – up to overnight if desired. Drain the water and wrap the covers in a towel again.

Now, press out the water and then unroll the towel. Place the diaper covers out flat to dry and there you have it, fresh and clean lanolized wool diaper covers.

You can get more details about how to lanolize a wool diaper cover here.