How To Lanolise

How to lanolise and care for your woollies

So you’ve bought your woollies, or are considering buying some, and are now unsure what to do with them. Whether they are longies/shorties/soakers/skirties etc. they are all looked after in the same way!

Your woollies will generally be made with 100% wool, so they have to be washed carefully, otherwise they will end up felting and will start to shrink.

You will need 

Firstly turn your Woolly inside out, this will mean that the inside that touches the nappy will be on the outside.

Using the back of the teaspoon (the handle part) scoop up approximately ¼ of a teaspoon of lanolin and scrape into the small plastic bottle. Then add 2-5 drops of your favourite essential oil, this is only optional, but will make your woollies smell lovely!!

With hottest tap water ¾ fill the plastic bottle and shake until all the lanolin has dissolved into the water, and there are no floaty bits. Poor this solution into your bucket.

Next add about a teaspoon of the wool wash to your bucket and fill with warm water, doing it this way will prevent lumps of lanolin, or ‘sticky spots’ from forming on your woollies!

Dunk you woolly into the bucket and GENTLY swish about until your woolly is saturated. Ideally you need to leave your woolly in the bucket over night, or at least until the water has cooled down. When wool is warm it opens up the cuticles allowing the lanolin to enter easily into the wool, and by leaving it in the water until it cools down will ensure more lanolin is trapped within the wool!

When the water has cooled lift your woolly item out of the bucket, you do not need to rinse, and gently squeeze out the water DO NOT WRING as this will cause your woolly to start felting and may make it shrink!

I prefer to roll my woollies in a dry towel and to gently squeeze any excess water out, then leave to dry lying FLAT or by hanging on the washing line, using the I-cord to clip the pegs onto, and not the actually woolly item.

You may need to lanolise your woolly a couple of times when it is new, to ensure its correctly lanolise and waterproof enough.

Once your woolly is dry, you may start to enjoy using it! 

How often do I need to wash my woollies?

You will not need to wash your woollies often, generally I’d say every couple of weeks, when you notice that the nappies are starting to ‘wick’, allowing water to soak through to bedding or clothes, and in-between you can simply just hang your woollies up to dry and air-out.

When you do need to wash your woollies, just simply use the method of lanolising, as above.

A good test to do, to find out if your woolly needs lanolising again, is using a dry woolly, and sprinkling a few drips of water onto the surface. If the water runs off the wool, it does not need lanolising again!