Anyways, on to my post topic. I occasionally buy wool longies from a website called diaperswappers. http://www.diaperswappers.com/. It's a great resource for cloth diapering. You can get stuff new and used. For much less than new. Which is always good in my opinion. So, the other day I got a killer deal on some longies knit with Mosaic Moon yarn. I love MM yarn so I couldn't pass on the great deal. When I got the longies, I realized why the deal was so great. (Detailed, gross pics at bottom, view at your own risk)
PSA: Please people, if you use wool. Respect it. No, it doesn't need to be washed after every wear. But please please please please please.....Wash it at least twice a month. And yes, you can lanolize it if you must. But I've found that wool is just fine without gallons of sticky lanolin. You really can just use a lanolin rich wash for your diaper cover and they wont leak if you promptly change your child when they get wet. Its not necessary to goop the lanolin on them every.single.time. If you do, they will hold onto the dirt more, thus needing more washes/strips. Another note, since lanolin waterproofs your wool, even just the lanolin rich wash, you need to "strip" your wool every now and again. By strip, I mean, wash it in Dawn dishsoap (original, about a good squirt in 1/2 sinkful of water) in pretty warm water and squeeze occasionally to get all the built up lanolin out. You do have to let it soak to let the warm water melt the lanolin. Warmer than usual water will melt the lanolin and the Dawn will clean them. Then you do a wash (when the water runs clear) with a lanolin rich wool wash. If your worried about felting, don't. Wool is actually pretty hard to felt. If you keep the water at about 100-102' and don't agitate it too much, just the occasional squeeze, you'll be fine. Felting occurs when there is too much agitation and too much extreme temperature change.
So, the reason for my long rambling education of wool? As I said earlier, I bought some longies off diaperswappers. I got them and realized, just by look and touch that they need a good "strip". Boy, I was so not prepared for what my night was going to entail......1/2 bottle of Dawn, 12 "strips" and 4 hours later, I finally had some longies that I would actually let my child wear.
This, people, is pure grossness. The thought that someone actually put these on their child, with or without knowledge of their filth, is just gross. So, if you ever buy used wool. Just strip it. Even if it looks and smells clean. Trust me. I speak from experience. Strip it before you use it. Your child will thank you.
And, just one more FYI, alot of wools will bleed. This can be mistaken for dirty water. So you do need to take care to not strip out the color. Your clue? When you drain the sink, dye wont leave a dirt ring around your sink and dirt particles at the bottom. Plus, it doesn't have a nasty dirty smell. These, oh they did. The smell was awful. Think just dirty. Its the only way to describe it. Ick. Just ick.
This is after only 3 minutes in the strip wash and one quick squeeze. Gross right?
This is 30 minutes later, 3rd strip, new water, more Dawn and a few more squeezes. Still just gross.
This is approximately 1 1/2 hours later, 5th strip (new water, more Dawn) and again, swishes and squeezes).
This is about 2 1/2 hours later. 9th strip, more Dawn, more water and more squeezes. 
I think ya'll get the idea. It took me another 5 strips with Dawn, more clean water and more squeezes to get the water to run clean. I wish I had thought to take before pics of the longies, but I truly didn't think they were that bad at first. Was I ever wrong. Lesson learned? You get what you pay for.
The good news? We now have some really cute longies that were alot of work. I'll post pics of Lil Miss Lilah in them soon. :)
And, if you got this far....Thanks for listening to my long wool rant. :)
I won't go back to DS since they won't fix the malware issue and Lee is a lying sack of... well you know.
ReplyDeleteclothdiapernation.com is where I do the same stuff anyway LOL.
But yeah, that is DISGUSTING. Admittedly I am not the most frequent washer and Q does some dirty playing in his wool, I would NEVER sell it without washing the HELL out of it.
Hm. Good to know. Im not on there alot anymore but I will check out the one you mentioned for sure.
ReplyDeleteI dont obsessively wash, and my kids do play in their wool. Its their clothing. They do get it dirty, but this was beyond dirt, as you can see. Plus, it was SOLD to me. I dont sell anything without washing it either. Isnt that just icky?