3 Reasons To Superwash Wool

Superwashed wool is wool that’s specially treated to make it machine washable. This treatment may be more important than you might realize—unless you’ve ever accidentally put untreated wool through a washing machine cycle, that is! The results can include felting and shrinkage, leaving you with rough, matted-down fibers instead of a luxuriously soft material.

There are advantages to working with superwash wool, from our sustainable manufacturing process to your everyday laundry routine. Here, we’re diving into some of the main reasons we superwash our merino wool socks.

1. To Avoid Felting and Shrinkage

In many ways, wool is similar to human hair. If you’ve ever seen a shampoo ad demonstrating how a certain shampoo can make your hair silky and smooth, you’ll know that each hair strand features a scaly outer texture.

Untreated wool has a similar texture. When this type of yarn gets exposed to moisture, heat, and agitation in a washing machine or dryer, the scales latch onto each other. This leads to felting, where all the fibers get matted together, and shrinkage. It’s not uncommon for non-superwash wool garments to shrink down by a couple of sizes if they’re laundered improperly.

With a merino superwash wool yarn like the one we use, the fibers are treated to remove those rough, scaly edges. This prevents felting and shrinkage and gives the fabric a better stretch and recovery with every wear and wash.

2. To Ensure Easy Care and Laundering

Super wash merino wool yarn won’t get ruined in the laundry machine, which means you can follow much easier care instructions to keep your wool fresh and clean.

Although you might take extra care to wash your favorite wool sweater by hand, not many people want to spend time hand washing their socks. It’s just not that convenient or practical. Because we use superwash wool, we can offer the most comfortable merino socks with the easiest care instructions.

Depending on your routine and preferences, you can care for our merino socks in two different ways.

One method is to machine wash them in warm water and tumble dry in low heat. For many people, this is a go-to method for getting laundry done pretty quickly.

The other way is to machine wash your socks in cold water and allow them to air dry. This approach is a little kinder to the planet and even gentler on your superwash wool, although it takes more time.

Either way, you don’t have to worry about ruining superwash wool socks or spending the whole afternoon letting them soak.

3. To Minimize Our Environmental Impact

Not all superwash wool yarns are prepared in the same way. Here at Sockwell, like with many of our processes, we take a sustainable approach to superwashing our wool.

Instead of coating the fibers with a polymer, we rely on a treatment process that involves water and chlorine gas. Chlorine is commonly used to treat water and make it safer. So, the water used to prepare our merino superwash yarn actually leaves our facilities cleaner than it was when it arrived!

Now that you know the perks of superwash wool, check out our selection and order your high-quality socks today.