The car is snowed in; the sweater is in a vicious cycle of repeated gentle (handwash) cycle

[cimorene]

Winter's second-to-last gasp! It snowed a bunch yesterday and now we're gonna have some cold days before it melts again. (But that probably won't be the last cold snap - the last is usually later in April.)

The car is hence snowed in under a pile of snow, and Wax worked yesterday and today, so we're going to have to walk to the grocery store this evening to get more yogurt for breakfast, fresh greens and hay for the bunnies, and catfood. And the groceries I have to get for work. (I am allowed to get the groceries for work in working hours, but when I need them first thing Monday morning I would rather get a ride on Sunday and keep them in the fridge than start my morning getting all sweaty hiking back and forth carrying bags of groceries.)

Wax had last Friday and Thursday off of work and she made a lemon pound cake, which came out really REALLY well, and did some extra laundry, but it's still a downer having her work both days of my weekend. At least the snow is pretty. It's been miserably ugly outside with the gravel and dirty ice and mud, and the first spring shoots haven't come up yet... although some of the trees and bushes did start trying to make leaves, to their chagrin, no doubt, now that they're cold and covered in snow again.

And speaking of laundry, I think I mentioned that a cat had peed in the basket with my sweaters - though I didn't blame them because I thought this was probably due to not wanting to get their feet dirty in the box.

Cat Divorce has the cats segregated and I have been in just the kitchen and diningroom with Snookums and Tristana for the colder months, because she's so tiny and naked and cold all the time, and he's old and arthritic, and these rooms are the warmest in the house by a good bit. But they now have just two rooms, and there's only one litterbox in them because there's just not room. The litterbox being in the kitchen is extremely undesirable anyway, but the dining room is where I sleep, and you need a bit of distance from the litterbox to sleep. But diabetes comes with lots of upset stomach and also with peeing a lot more. So the box fills up REALLY quickly. There really should be more than one litterbox in their range for that reason. I removed the laundry baskets and put a cover over the basket with my wool sweaters in it, only then the last time I changed the sheets, Wax discovered that one of them peed on the sheet where it was lying on the floor before she came and got it to wash. So apparently whoever it is has got in the habit now and we can't have any fabric on the floor in here.

Wax and I can probably switch bedrooms again soon, once it becomes warm enough in the house that the cats aren't trying to hide in the blanket against the radiator 90% of the time. That will provide more boxes and more chance for Tristana to run up and down the stairs and get her steps in.

I had to wash the sweater with wool wash, not just water, because, you know, cat pee, but unfortunately the only wool wash I was able to find locally contains a perfume that irritates my nose. So I'm hoping putting it through the hand wash cycle an additional three times after that with just water will remove the perfume enough that wearing it won't make me sneeze. The other option is putting it through with white vinegar, which is actually meant to be good for wool, but that leaves a vinegary scent as well so it would probably have to be soaked with like... some conditioner in water to try to get rid of that? As you can see, it's a complicated vicious cycle and what I really need is to find another wool wash, preferably unscented. I don't use it often though. Knitted woolens don't want a lot of washing, and water is usually enough. (This particular issue has never happened before!)

Comments

[viggorlijah]

I was told once to use unscented human hair shampoo or dog shampoo for wool as a reasonable alternative to wool wash, and in my experience, plain human shampoo (whatever I'm currently using) works just fine when used in a tiny portion. Sheep hair is protein-based hair just like ours, although thinner.

If you have vodka, you could dilute and spray it on the wool to kill the scent.

The lemon pound cake - oh that's my absolute favourite type of pound cake and so so good in the afternoon, you are so lucky to have your personal Finnish Bake-Off!

[cimorene]

Would vodka kill the perfume??? Wow. Maybe I will try that, since I don't have any unscented shampoo, just couple of sulfate-free 'natural' ones with herb smells. That could be weird.

[viggorlijah]

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/one-good-thing-how-to-remove-odors-from-clothes-with-vodka-of-all-things-36952088 - vodka has no scent after it dries and it kills bacteria etc, like stronger neutral vinegar. Where I live, vodka is more expensive than febreeze though :-)

[cimorene]

Oh, good idea!

Vodka is more expensive but weight, BUT we have a bunch of it already and we never use it except for erasing dry erase markers.

[princessofgeeks]

Wishing an early spring and some way to end the cat divorce.

ALL THE HUGS

[cimorene]

😔Yeah this cat divorce is murder! 💕 Thanks.

[twistedchick]

Your own shampoo is probably the best thing for wool -- wool is hair, after all. I use mine on my sweaters (it has very little scent, which dissipates) and that works well. It's best not to use straight vinegar on the wool; that is too strong. Dilute it a lot.

[cimorene]

Oh yeah, when you put it in the washing machine it definitely gets diluted! I think the dosage is only a teaspoon or something like that.

I'm not sure about our shampoos, though. They have a lot of herbal scent that might be weird on a sweater.

[sporky_rat]

It won't last any longer on the sweater than it does on your hair.

[laurenthemself]

I do remember the mention of the wee in the sweater basket, and I've had cat wees in not good places before, so I know how hard it is to clear up. I hope one of your solution works without wrecking the sweaters.

Would an unscented/lightly scented fabric softener (if there is such a thing) help, or would that be bad for the wool?

[cimorene]

My understanding is that they can leave build up on fibers, so I think that would be bad? I've never seen any information about them on wool specifically though.

[torachan]

I have a litter box in my bedroom and most of the time it's fine, but they sure do like doing stinky poops right when I'm trying to get to sleep, or in the early hours of the morning when I might wake up briefly but not want to actually get out of bed yet. There are two other boxes in parts of the house that are far enough away to not bother me at all but they just have to poop here.

[cimorene]

Yeah, if it dad just Tristana it would be mostly okay, but unfortunately with Snookums's sensitive stomach, there's always a good possibility of EXTRA stinky diarrhea. That's why he got trained to ask to have his butt wiped after he goes to the box in the first place, so he gets treats and we hopefully avoid dirty buttprints on fabric.