To put a pure wool dry clean only jumper in the washing machine?

[TheoriginalLEM]

Well, would i be? if i put it on the wool cycle?

There is a REALLY NICE jumper for sale in the charity shop, its pure wool, those palomino jumpers you often see on hippy type stalls. I want it but obviously don't want to arse about dry cleaning it.

Would you risk it? its a fiver?

For future information the thing that makes woollens shrink is sudden changes in water temperature. This is how they make felt in fact. Washing machines usual wash in hot water and rinse in cold, which causes the problem.

You can either do a cold wash, or if you have a pause button on your machine then pause it after the wash bit, wait for the water to get cold, and then start it again for the rinse cycle.

I learned about felting yesterday (in a craft sense) and realised this was what had happened to shrunken jumpers!

I should also have mentioned that you should always wash wool with soap not detergent. Something like Stergene is good.

I have a friend who does felting Maid, she produces the most fantastic and original pictures.