> > How do you "whiten " Wool? I know you can't use bleach. I can't find > anything > > in the books I have. Thanks You will probably all scream about "damage to wool" when I tell you what I did to 'whiten' some wool but stick with me. I washed a couple of handspun sweaters and did not have time to roll them in towels and hang them up - I just placed them side by side on the tub floor until I could get to them. One was a very early effort - beautiful Argyll pattern from a Rowan book - and a dark blue still bled even after a number of years/washings. (But I forgot). The other was a Lopi pattern with patterned yoke that took forever to knit and solid white sleeves and body. When I took them out some time later to hang up, I discovered that the two sweaters had snuggled up and the blue from the Argyll had bled on part of the body and one sleeve of the Lopi. That's when the air turned blue!! Ranting, begging, raving, pleading, soaping - nothing worked of course. In desperation, I opened a box of Rit Color Remover and gently, cautiously, applied a mild solution to the stained portions. The color came out nicely, but the wool was much whiter than the natural white of the unstained, untreated sections. What the hell! I dunked the whole sweater, up to the patterned yoke, in Color Remover solution. The natural "white" wool turned a sparkling snowy white! But I worried, of course, about the effect of the chemical on the wool. So I washed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed. That was about four years ago and the sweater is still perfectly happy. I never did it again. Carol http://www.thesilkworker.com To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
