《Let's talk about knitting two or three things- about the maintenance and cleaning of woolen hand-woven clothes - 1》
With more and more yarn knitting and contact, I can finally share a little experience on this topic.
Before talking about the maintenance and cleaning of woolen clothes, let's first understand the structure of animal fibers. Generally, animal fibers such as wool, alpaca and silk are mainly composed of protein, and the outer layer of hair fibers will be covered with hair scales.
These hair scales are the main reasons for wool elasticity, moisture absorption and warmth, itching and easy felting, in order to improve (?) These characteristics of wool, the textile industry developed superwash treatment.
The so-called super-washing is a way to treat the hair scales with chemicals, remove the fine hair scales and particles in the wool fiber, and finally wrap the outer layer of the fiber with polymer, so the wire after ultra-washing is smooth and fine, shrink-proof and not easy to felt, and most of them have the characteristics of machine washing.
It cannot be denied that the process of super-washing is accompanied by a large amount of waste water and chemicals, although it improves the characteristics of wool easy to shrink, easy felt, and difficult to clean and maintain, but also removes the natural elasticity of wool, moisture absorption and warmth, which is why washing wool-woven clothes with super-water will become large and long after going into the water (because of the loss of the natural elasticity of wool fiber).
In fact, as long as woolen clothes are not overly soiled, they do not need to be washed too often, because the scale structure of wool fibers is less likely to absorb dirt or odors.
During general maintenance, try to place woolen clothes flat in a ventilated place, so that the fibers can naturally absorb moisture and restore their original elasticity and vitality.
WHEN WASHING, DO NOT USE GENERAL CLOTHES DETERGENT, AS FAR AS POSSIBLE TO USE SPECIAL LOTION, POUR A LITTLE AMOUNT IN WATER AT ABOUT 25 DEGREES C, MIX WELL, AND THEN PUT IN THE CLOTHES TO GENTLY MASSAGE, AND THEN CHANGE THE WATER TO WASH AGAIN, USE SQUEEZING INSTEAD OF TWISTING TO ROUGHLY WRING OUT THE CLOTHES, AND THEN PUT THEM ON A DRY TOWEL TO ABSORB EXCESS MOISTURE, AND FINALLY LAY FLAT AND DRY.
All the above steps are to maintain the integrity and elasticity of the hair scales as much as possible, and to prevent the risk of fiber shrinkage and entanglement due to the interfacial active ingredients of the lotion and the pulling force.
Although the maintenance and cleaning procedures are a bit cumbersome, only such care can make the woolen clothes that have been woven hard for a long time~
The next article is to share the bitter history of washing