Fiber Science 1: Wool Wash, Conditioners and Crocking

In this video I am talking about solid vs. liquid wool washes, fiber softeners and conditioners and why "crocking" might occur with handdyed yarns.
A corresponding blog post with more detailed information can be found here: dunkelgrun.com/fiber-science-1/
Ravelry group: www.ravelry.com/groups/the-dun...
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This video features the song Orbit (Instrumental Versions) by Josh Woodward which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
www.joshwoodward.com/

[@theresalee9392]

Oh my goodness! I am sooo happy to have found you. Thank you !

[@polarsingular]

I really like your episodes. So much fun to listen to you talk about knitting and science. You are one of kind. Thank you

[@karimcnair9890]

I love it when you share this kind of information. Thank you.

[@tonizegarra2179]

Hi Anna What a great episode. Thank you for taking us to Barcelona. Love the shops you visited so nice to see how different and specials they are See you soon , can't wait for your next podcast

[@sylvienguyen3361]

Very informative and useful information. It’s nice to have information that supports washing clothing without fabric softener.

[@maskevaerk2797]

Thank you for all this great knowledge Anna. It's something that I don't have the patience or the prerequisites to look up on my own, and it's just a treat getting it from you while I just sit and knit. I've started using my soap bar - just for my hands - and it smells so good! And reminds me of you and EYF everyday. At first I thought I would never use it, but that would be such a waste of wonderful soap.

[@kristienieminie619]

Thank you for answering my question! So interesting! It makes sense with the fabric softener. I only recently discovered not to use softener on cotton towels as well

[@donnamariecorrigan]

This has been very interesting.

[@MagritVideo]

Thank you! This was very interesting and helpful!

[@yamayarn4548]

Thank you Anna, very helpful interesting information!

[@littlebigknits]

Thank you Anna! This was great!!

[@DixieGirl9876]

Great info, thanks for sharing!

[@Pdkweathers]

I have acidic skin. When I get metal framed eye glasses. I make sure the metal is Titanium. Thank you for making this video. It is very helpful.

[@skentstuard]

What great info. Thank you!!

[@simonebourque1061]

Well done Anna!XO

[@thi9864]

Thank you for the great information

[@anna_stalmakova]

Very interesting episode. I agree with your opinion. I also make soap and I think using that for body is best. Especially with lanolin.

[@molly1939]

Awesome video!

[@christines1924]

Beautiful, clear explanations! Thank you, from one Chemist (Organic) to another 😁❤️

[@katherineclairmont9003]

Cool information 💦

[@rebeckaroy6790]

Thanks for your podcast. I have always affected the nickel-plated things that come into contact with my skin, from jewellery to knitting needles. Using carbon or wood or bamboo needles is really the only way around that as far as I have found.

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Rebecka Roy thank you for your comment! I am sorry to hear that but I hope you enjoy knitting with the other materials. I myself knit almost only with wooden needles 😊

Very interesting. And good macros! XD By the way, it was curious to hear you talking about that... I play a metallic instrument (handpan) and it is known that people with more acidic sweat can affect the instrument, even oxidize it.

[@hejatanten]

Interesting!

[@TheRosewin]

Thank you Anna, you always give such great information and interesting as well. I use a dish washing detergent when scouring fleese, or wool spun in the grease. I often wonder if this has a negative effect on the wool, as in taking out too much of the natural oils? I do have access to Unicorn products here, but I am yet to try power scourer. Also on a side not of washing clothes. I use a small amount of vinegar in my rinse water as a softener. With heavily soiled clothes I use bicarb soda in with the detergent as a booster. It seems to work fine and doesn't smell like vinegar if you don't use too much. I do only have rain water where I live ( South Australia) though, so don't know how this would do in hard water. I also use a drop or two of clove oil in the rinse, for a nice smell.

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Hi! THank you very much for your comment. I think dish detergent is a very popular product to use for scouring raw fleeces. Of course it depends how much you use and how many washes you do (and how much grease / lanolin your wool has) but I think it's a good choice. If you feel like the wool got too dry you can still re-"lanolize" it! I think I will have to try vinegar as a softener! It should also work with hard water (because acid dissolves the limestone!).

[@misse-jensen]

hi Anna. I don´t use ditergent when i wash my clothes but i use winegar instead not much but about max 1/4 deciliter in the washingmachine where you put the detergent in, the clothes becomes a bit softer. love your podcast

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Thank you very much Misse! I'll try that some time :)

[@misse-jensen]

dunkelgrün And when i wash the White clothes i put a tablespoon backinpowder in the clothes is take the greyish tan the White clothes can get, and it is becaurse of the charlk in the water is was My granmother that tought me that and it help😍

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Misse Jensen baking powder is great for making clothes white! But the thing that helps with the chalk (calcium) in the water is actually the vinegar (acid) 😉

[@jiji4116]

Hi Ana I have one question I have brand new woolen duffel coat and is very itchy,what is best solution to make softer my coat Thanks

[@rosaliekruckerruiz]

Hello Anna, Thank you for this very informative video! I find all of your videos interesting. I believe you live in Switzerland. Me too. I have made soap a few times. But I've had difficulty finding a place to purchase NaOH. The only drug store (Drogerie) where I bought some is now gone (owner retired). May I ask where you get sodium hydroxide? Cheers!

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Hi Rosalie, thank you for your comment! Yes I think the laws in Switzerland allow NaOH only to be sold in drug stores or pharmacies (Apotheke). You should be able to get it in any pharmacy or they can order it for you. The last time I went to buy some the pharmacist was quite hesitant to give it to me and I told him I use it for soap. He said he can’t sell it to untrained people... I told him that I am a chemist, and then he gave it to me... but he also didn’t want to see any proofs... so it was strange! I think it always depends on the people working there. Good luck with your soap making!

[@rosaliekruckerruiz]

Thank you so much. I had similar experiences. PS your english is super!

[@jsmultron]

Thank you for making this very informative video! I always learn something new when I watch you. Where do you get your Unicorn products, if I may ask? I also live in Europe, and ordering wool wash from overseas sounds expensive.

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Hi! From your username I guess you are Swedish? (Jag älskar smultron!) According to the unicorn website there should be "hulitanten" selling unicorn products in Sweden, but I couldn't find the website. . I bought mine from chantimanou handspinnerey in Germany, but unfortunately she has closed her online shop some time ago. So when my bottles are empty I'll also have to find a new place to order. You can find stockists in Europe (and everywhere else of course) through the Unicorn website: www.unicornclean.com/stockists/

[@jsmultron]

Thank you for the info! So kind of you to look up a retailer in Sweden for me. ❤️ Wow, do you know Swedish too? My first language is indeed Swedish, although my nationality is Finnish. Just like Switzerland, Finland is a multilingual country. Och jag älskar också smultron. 🙂 Based on your link, I found an online shop in Germany that sells Unicorn, but they are temporarily out of stock. They let you request an email notification for when they’re back in stock. This is them: www.wollschaaarfs-hoflädchen.de/ I also found an online shop in Finland that sells Soak. Have you tried Soak? I’m considering ordering some Soak while I wait for Unicorn to come back in stock.

[@jsmultron]

Hi again! I just got notified that Wollschaaarf's Hoflädchen has Unicorn in stock again. They charged quite a lot for shipping, though, and VAT was not included in the list price. So the final price was quite a bit more than I had expected. Not a huge problem, but good to know if you’re comparing prices.

[@lakritzeslena]

okay, i'm really curious about this. I'm into hair-care a lot and began to wash my hair with soap, as i live in an area with hard water (28°dh) i couldnt use the tap water, so I make some effort and use filtered and distilled water, the outcome is great and not coated at all. I also use acidic rinses. one more question that comes up for me is with the conditioner by unicorn, sounds as it would also contain kationic surfactans (its supposed to be antistatic, thats why i come to this assumption)- as many conditioners, even ecological ones do, maybe not the amount of a fabric softener but still, they build up. i do use hair conditioner on scratchy wool, but only ones without quats and those tensides (not easy to find at all). do you wash your hair with soap?

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Hi Lena! Thank you so much for this great input! No, I didn't wash my hair with soap so far... I am a bit lazy to prepare the acidic rinses and prepare my water for the hair wash (I usually wash the hair at 6am before going to work and then things have to go fast 😅). So for now I am using a normal shampoo, but I should probably try it with soap. Yes unicorn fiber rinse contains cationic surfactants. There is such a large variety of these compounds - and not all of them are quarternary ammonium salts! A quick search on SciFinder gave me an insane number of more than 700 000 substances for quarternary ammonium salts alone. They have many different properties and not all of them create an insoluble layer (build up) on the fibers. I assume that the surfactant used in this rinse product is specifically chosen to give good results with wool. Of course they keep the exact compound a secret, but I have never experienced any problems with it. It's great that you have found a hair conditioner which gives good results on wool. 😉

[@corir207]

thank you for an other very interesting video! I`ve got a question for you :) For 2 years now, I wash all my wool with ivy-tea (brew 10 shredded leaves of ordinary european ivy with a big cup of boiling water - stir, then let it stand around until it cools, pour the "tea" in the washing machine or add to hand-wash water) - it contains natural saponins, so it cleans just fine. My question is: Why does it make the wool so soft as well? Does it contain any acids? It washes other clothes nicely as well - just no bleaching effect, so the whites go grey at some point of time :)

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Hi Cori! Thank you so much for this very inspiring post. I will definitely have to learn about and experiment with ivy leaves. I knew they contain saponins and that they can be used for washing clothes, but I had no idea they also make a good wool wash that even makes the wool soft. I’ll try to find some information on the compounds contained in this plant. But like in all plants, it certainly is a wild cocktail of chemicals and often they are not studied in detail (especially if they don’t have pharmaceutical properties). For getting white clothes without using commecial detergents you could add some baking soda to your washes! And I will be collecting ivy leaves very soon and try to wash wool with it! Thank you ❤️

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Hi Cori! Your comment has inspired me to try out ivy tea today and so far I love it! I am going to make a video about it, would you like to be mentioned by name (and maybe a link to your blog or similar) or do you prefer to stay anonymous? Thank you for your inspiration!

[@corir207]

I`m glad, I inspired you :) but I don`t need mentioning really. I don`t run a blog either. But I find it great, you are taking up the idea - I found it on www.smarticular.net , a lovely site with all sorts of do-it-yourself-in-an-eco-friendly-way recipies and ideas.

[@plansandprocrastination]

from a chemist standpoint how do you feel about the theory that you shouldn't wash your hand-dyed superwash yarn in hot water, because the hot water alone will cause the bonds to break between dye and fiber, and once those bonds are broken...your color will bleed forever. I've never heard that until this year, but I'm eager to hear if there is any scientific proof or reasoning behind that theory.

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Hi! Thank you for your question. I have to say that I have never heard about that theory. It doesn't sound very plausible to me... The bond between the dye and the fiber is actually an ionic bond. It shouldn't be affected by heat. But it can be affected by certain detergents or salts! Acid dyes are also not likely to break because of hot water temperatures, because they are designed to be fixed onto the fibers with exactly that. So to me it sounds very unlikely but I would also be interested in the reasoning behind this theory if anybody has some!

[@plansandprocrastination]

I've been dyeing for over 10 years and always check my bonds with hot water wash/rinse after the dyed skeins have a chance to cool down. I've heard multiple dyers insist that it is the reason customers are having bleeding problems in their yarn...that an indie dyer should never wash/rinse in hot water. I've not had a problem with bleeding except for one batch of "bad" dye. Company was alerted, they changed the dye up, sent me a new tub, and all was well. Thank you so much btw for such an awesome podcast. Please keep the chemistry and science slant going, it's refreshing!

[@dunkelgrun1425]

Well then I think your experience is worth more than strange theories 😉 thank you for sharing! One thing that came to my mind about the hot water theory - heat basically is motion. So hot water has more motion on the small scale and agitates the yarn in a way. That might lead to rearrangement of the fibers so that new areas are exposed from which unfixed dye molecules can get dissolved into the water (just like with mechanical crocking). That could be an explanation for bleeding that occurs only in hot water. But that the dye is going to bleed forever is unlikely in my opinion. Thank you for nice words!