Salvaging wool from grubby motheaten blankets?

I was just given 4 decrepit blankets. Their house blankets and 3 of them have satin trim on the ends. I did a burn test on the fuzz and there's no plastic in them. They have stains and small moth holes, and where in a mousy out building, so they need some sort of cleaning.

3 are peach/salmon colored and the best one is pale yellow, so some sort of dying will happen, though the peach/salmon color is close to some of the faded madder cloth I've seen.

I figure theses would be good material for making leggings and some sort of insulating layer, but there's not an immediate project I need the wool for.

So the immediate question is how to "process" these blankets to be put away till in ready to start a project.

I was thinking about machine washing with castile soap, air drying and then moth balling them in trash bags. I figure I'll loose some to the moth holes opening up, but after a month with moth balls I'd hope the eggs would be dead.

Or should I just wash them hot and toss them in the dryer and start with a fulled material, that will end up twice fulled after dying in a hot solution?

My present "blanket chest" is a plastic Hardigg container and a bunch of different blankets and wool old garments are in there. Everything is trash bagged individually and there's a 3-4 mothballs in the bottom of the chest incase some eggs hatch in one of the bags. I don't want to toss anything that's actively infected in with the rest.

Here's a very unscientific color match to matter, printed off the computer with a cheap printer.

I’ve cleaned up a few as a precaution. I usually stick them in a deep freezer for a week or let them outside in a garbage bag if it’s going to be below zero. I’ve read that real cold can kill the eggs. Then I get a big plastic tote and set it up in the shower, and wash them by hand with woolite and lukewarm water. Mine are all striped Pendletons or candy stripe HBC’s/Witney, so I don’t want any color to bleed. I kinda fold them first so I can manage them once they’re wet - a 3.5 or 4 point blanket full of water is heavy. I dunk them, pull them out, loosely wrap them and press the remaining water out against my chest, refold, and dunk again. Rinse is the same without the woolite. You could use some kind of mild shampoo instead if that’s what you have. Last, I use a good dose of Eucalan and dunk them in that, then fold them in half hanging in the shower to drip dry. Laying flat is preferable but I don’t have the space. You don’t have to rinse the Eucalan out: it contains lanolin and eucalyptus, and helps restore the wool and deter moths.

That's some good stuff you got there. My first thought when I saw the title of your post...without even reading the post....was LEGGINGS. Doesn't matter about the color or the moth holes, which are just "patina" in my view. You could also cut some up and make Canada hats out of it, although that wouldn't use up much material.

I have very successfully washed wool blankets using a product called 'Sport Wash' (from Walmart) in the auto washer with cold water. Keep in mind, back in the day, appearance was far less important than utility. You might want to use the worst one and cut up to sew over the holes in the other blankets to make them useable. I store my wools in plastic totes with pieces of red cedar to keep away the buggies. Works fine.

Back in the day you gave them to the Indians

Killing the moth eggs with out trashing the blankets or over fulling the wool is the primary goal. Moth ball are easy but it takes for ever to air them out afterwards. How ever I wash them, I think I'll use J+J baby Shampoo verses the Dr. Bronners.

Bark-eater said:

Killing the moth eggs with out trashing the blankets or over fulling the wool is the primary goal. Moth ball are easy but it takes for ever to air them out afterwards. How ever I wash them, I think I'll use J+J baby Shampoo verses the Dr. Bronners.

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One other thing is that moths tend to get them along folds - where there’s no air or light. Once you get them out in the light cleaned and unfolded, that’s a less favorable environment for moths to survive. But I still always give mine a week in the freezer or outside in negative temps. Good, miserable cold. It’ll kill us, so it should kill moths.

I just put a Hudson Bay blanket I got off ebay in the freezer. I'm going to have to push frozen veggies for a while to get room for another..

I’ve washed wool in the washing machine using pet shampoo. It doesn’t remove all the natural oils. Woolite works too. If I want the material filled I dry them. If not line dry or spread out flat somewhere. I’d be hesitant to use mothballs unless you don’t mind the scent for almost forever.

Is dry cleaning an option for wool blankets?

The two end blankets look like a match for color. You could make them look like one period blanket by stitching the two together having a single seam up the middle. After stitching, that double blanket and the others look like good candidates for walnut dye and make some nice brown woodsy blankets. I wash my blankets at the laundrymat using Pantene hair shampoo, and I use the Pantene conditioner as you would use fabric softener. After all, wool is just hair. I wash and dry them on hot. (kills moth eggs). They will shrink a little both they will thicken and full up nicely. Nice camp blankets.
Ohio Rusty ><>

Kabulrocks said:

Is dry cleaning an option for wool blankets?

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It is, but it removes the natural lanolin and dries the fibers out. You can restore after that with a soak in eucalan and water - which can soften even a scratchy blanket up some. Wool is hair, so hand wash with shampoo or woolite and lukewarm water basically can’t hurt it. I have a couple foreign milsurp blankets I will wash in the machine because I’m lazy, but wool isn’t the strongest material - the twisting in the machine can damage it. I don’t wash my nice blankets in the machine. Of course since these blankets are for projects anyway, maybe the OP isn’t as concerned with that. The other thing is that wet wool will stink, but the smell goes away when it dries.

do what our forefathers did(or fore grandmothers) use cedar chips or full chest the same moths eat feathers and other things we like cedar keeps the bug at bay

I was using a cedar oil clothing spray, but its not available any more. I'm going to find and an alternative and do a wholesale treatment of all the wool I have sometime this summer. I'm sort of leaning towards running these 4 grubbie's through the washer and dryer with baby soap. Only variation I can think off is to wash with cold water, air dry and then run the dry blankets in the dryer to kill the moth eggs with out fulling the blankets. I'm a little concerned it will cook the wool though.

If you want cedar chips, go to a pet store and get a bag of cedar used as bedding for hamsters etc. I just put the bag in the chest of closet. It helps keep moths away. Not as good as a cedar chest or closet but it helps.

ArmorerRoy said:

Back in the day you gave them to the Indians

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Hopefully without Smallpox on them.

I have a pretty sizable collection of wool blankets, some very old HBs when I get one I wash it in cold water using Woolite and dry it on the fluff cycle with no heat.
After they are dry I put them in large vacuum seal bags.

andy52 said:

I have a pretty sizable collection of wool blankets, some very old HBs when I get one I wash it in cold water using Woolite and dry it on the fluff cycle with no heat.
After they are dry I put them in large vacuum seal bags.

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What kind of Woolite are you using? I think they stopped making the original formula.

Bark-eater said:

What kind of Woolite are you using? I think they stopped making the original formula.

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What I have may be the old formula, I've had that bottle for a while now.
As an alternative I have used Oxyclean, it doesn't seem to have any I'll effect on the wool.

Well the weather report is calling for a gully scrubber on Saturday, and a week of wet afterwards so, an executive decision was necessary. The blankets got heavily mothballed in trash bags as is and will marinade in poison gas until the next cycle of drying days comes through. Then I'll wash them on gentle in the machine with pet shampoo and air dry them. Hopefully that will clear the mothball smell and not turn them to felt.

As far as what to make with the raw material, leggings is an obvious choice. All 3 of the peach/salmon blankets are noticeably different in their weave and texture if examined closely , so making a 2 piece blanket would be a little extra "primitive"
Their also a lot lighter weight than a point blanket so, I think the weight would be right for a "3 season" match coat. When the get through the wash, I'll check the sizes relative to a 2 1/2 or 3 point blanket, or maybe "square" one of the blankets. I've seen pictures somewhere of a pale green wool "under waistcoat", and I might try to make something like that as an extra garment for sleeping.