Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Wooly wonders

The green plaid wool skirt was well past its prime... the blue sweater developed holes... so I decided to see what would happen if these two items were washed in hot water. Would I end up with lovely felted wool?

The first few attempts (hot water wash and rinse - high heat dryer) brought no change at all. (After years of dry cleaning bills, that was a bit distressing!) Tonight, I whacked the garments into pieces and pulled out the big guns - my stockpot and boiling water!

hot! hot! hot!
still too hot to touch
Boiling...
Drying on the highest setting...
No change!
What? Am I the only person on earth that can't shrink wool?


Though it didn't become what I expected... this fabric certainly is clean!

The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Psalm 12:6

2 comments:

Joel and Marcie Fenske said...

This is hilarious! And... I agree, distressing. I just paid $12.10 to the dry cleaners today for only 2 items. ARGH!

Beth said...

I think you just may be the only person that can't shrink wool. I had a beautiful large cream colored wool throw...straight from the Pendleton factory in Oregon when Mom and I visited it several years ago. One day....unbeknownst to me...my husband decided it needed to be cleaned. He machine washed and dried it and now I have a very small thick square of cream colored wool. After I finally stopped weeping when I saw it....I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. So, I have hung on to it all this time. Surely there must be somthing I can do with it. Any ideas??