The topic of "what to use to wash your yarn" is a long-running and contentious one. Some people will only use a product like Eucalan, which is designed specifically to wash knitting, and which requires no rinsing. That's pretty spiffy, but Eucalan can get pretty expensive, and I'm always looking for a simpler solution.
I recently ran across an interesting treatise in a new spinning textbook, Alden Amos' Handspinning (a.k.a. "the blue book"). It is Amos' contention that when it comes to washing wool and wool yarns, the simpler the better. Products like laundry detergent (my previous #1 choice for washing knitting) don't just contain ingredients to clean. They also contain chaff to bulk up the powder, optical brighteners, enzyme cleaners, and a whole host of chemicals that do nothing more than allow the company to add more banners to their package. ("New! Improved! Now with more fake science!")
All this other "stuff" just gets in the way of what you want, which is a simple, non-harmful detergent to clean your wool and wool knitting. Amos recommends using the simplest, most old-fashioned detergent you can find, plus a bit of washing soda for good measure.
I looked around my house and realized that I basically had that on hand, in the form of Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap (lavender scent) and borax. The difference between borax and washing soda is minimal, they are essentially interchangeable for most applications. Certainly this one.
I decided to start with a challenge. I had been working with some skeins of yarn that had been stored in mothballs. Previously with the laundry detergent, it took 3-5 washes before the mothball smell came out. But using equal parts Dr. Bronner's and borax (about 1 T each in a 5-gallon bucket) it only took ONE wash!
I'm sold. Not only does it work well, but it's biodegradable, Earth-friendly, and incredibly cheap! I'll never wash knitting with anything else.
Image courtesy Flickr/The Bees
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