Thread: wool blanket question

During a recent cleaning spree, I found a wool blanket that had been in storage. I've been trying to clean it to use, but it has a very peculiar smell. Might be mothballs, might be lizard piss, no idea really. Short story long, I've washed it a bunch of times, and I'm thinking I want to try to add more lanolin to it. Anyone know where in Australia I could buy some? or should I not worry about it? so far it only smells when wet, but since I'll be using for camping, I'd rather freshen it up a bit.

Not sure about in Aus but I found pure lanolin on ebay relatively cheap in the USA.

Heard about the sheep problem! Being Carbon Taxed out of existence! (;-)
You might want to talk to your local 'Dry Cleaners'. In my dark distant past I was a pharmacy tech in the Army and back then they thought us to fabricate various creams and concoction with Lanolin. Not a easy substance to work with!

Wool always smells when wet even on the sheep. Unless processed for machine washing it should be dry cleaned. Wool can do funny things when washed.

Just whack a little Cuddly in the fabric softener compartment and be done with it. I remember camping as a lad - it is apparently a great Aussie camping gear (footy gear, wet-weather gear, sports gear...) tradition for pretty much everything to stink to high-heaven anyway, so you are going against generations of social wisdom in this.

James.

Air it for as long as you can outside. Give it a week or two and most smells will be long gone.

have to concur with bigspendur, I'd be dry cleaning.
You can probably pick up pure lanolin in a tube or a tub from a chemist, be aware it's going to be sticky and probably won't apply readily to a woolen blanket though.
If you still have odour issues even after all that, perhaps try bagging up a heap of lavender flowers (or rosemary branches if lavender is too girly or whatever) in like a muslin bag, wrap the blanket around it, stick it in a plastic garbage bag and leave it somewhere.
Unless your in the north part of Oz right now it's probably bucketing down and will be for the forseeable future, airing, while obviously an excellent solution may not be practical right at the present.

Dry cleaning is the way to go if you haven't washed it yet. If you hang it outside that will also help expecially on cool sunny days. If you put lanolin on it you will end up with a greasy mess and it will not help to remove any odor.

Thanks for the advice guys. I wouldn't be worried about the smell, but it is the first wool thing I've owned with any smell at all, and it is unpleasant... As for dry cleaning, not much chance I'm going to pay someone to wash my camping gear, if it can't handle washing at home, it sure won't survive an outing! I'll leave it out on the line and see what happens, should be cold enough to keep the bugs away... I guess, didn't figure 12*C was cold, but what do I know? I'm just a misplaced canuck!

Throw it in a trash bag with as much crumpled newspaper as you can fit. Newspaper absorbs odors really well.