You recently bought a wool sweater and loved wearing it. A wool sweater or cardigan does not have to be washed immediately after being worn a few times, but after a while you want to freshen up your wool garment by washing. Do you always have to wash a wool sweater or cardigan by hand? or can you also wash your woolen items in a washing machine or do they have to be dry cleaned? Every woolen garment has a care label that indicates exactly how to wash this woolen garment. Always follow the wool label instructions to extend the life of your garment.

In this blog we explain what the care labels mean.

washing machine wash

 30°C) very mild wash

You can machine wash the woolen garment on a special wool wash program. Fill the drum up to a third in the washing machine. Do not use fabric softener and use a special wool detergent, preferably with lanolin incorporated.

Handwash

When this sign is on your care label, you should wash your woolen garment by hand between 30 and 40 degrees Celsius. Take a large tub of water and dissolve the wool detergent in it. Let your clothes float in the soapy water and shake gently, do not rub, pull and wring out! Then rinse the clothing well and carefully squeeze out the excess water by hand. Do not spin dry or tumble dry. Leave it on a dry towel, lay it in shape for a while, dry flat but not in the sun.

Do not wash

It is better not to wash garments with this sign on your care label. They are sensitive to wet treatments or are not suitable for washing in a domestic washing machine due to their size. An example of this is a woolen duvet or blanket. It is best to let these woolen items air regularly, hang them outside or put a woolen blanket in the snow, for example, if it is going to do that again in the Netherlands.

Don't bleath

This laundry triangle with a diagonal cross, or the St. Andrews Cross, means that you should use a detergent without bleach.

Do not tumble dry

In woolen clothes, this sign is often on the care label, which means that you should not dry these clothes in the dryer, your garment will absolutely shrink.

Mild drying process

Caution is advised when drying in the tumble dryer. Select a mild drying program with a reduced thermal effect and temperature and a short drying time. Even if this washing mark appears on the care label of your wool garment, we recommend that you do not dry your garment in a dryer.

Iron at a moderate temperature

When this sign appears on your care label, it means that you can iron the garment at a temperature of 150 degrees Celsius. On your iron this is setting 2. This corresponds to the setting: wool, silk, polyester and viscose. Ironing can be done under a moderately damp cloth and should be ironed lightly. In practice you will almost never iron a woolen cardigan or sweater and we do not recommend this.

Have it chemically cleaned

It is best not to wash this woolen garment by hand or in the washing machine. In a professional dry cleaner, this garment is washed in perchlorethylene, hydrocarbons.