‘As Wool is Her Witness,’ She’s a Power Scour Convert

Sherri Cox tells us she’s both a fiber arts enthusiast and an “absolute Power Scour convert.” Thanks to her pusher — er, supplier, Barbara Thomas, (threadsthrutime on Ravelry), Sherri has tried all of our products with fantastic results. And she’s spreading the word… just look at what she posted on Ravelry recently:

I recently gave the Unicorn brand of fleece and fiber wash and rinse a test drive and I can say I am in love, absolute love, with this line of product. So far everything I have thrown at it has come amazingly clean, and amazingly fast. Even my higher lanolin content Bond fleece has turned out soft and fluffy with very little effort. The biggest bonus is my house does not smell like wet sheep! Right now (mid-January) we are experiencing cool and damp weather. Really not the best weather to be washing fleece. Cool and damp means the fleece has to dry in the house, which normally means wet sheepy smell all throughout the house. Something my family is not real keen on. The Unicorn product has a really nice fresh clean scent. As wool is my witness I will never wash my fleece in Dawn again. That’s how much I love this product.

Power Scour is for raw, greasy fleece. The Fibre Wash is for finer, non greasy fleece, such as alpaca, bison, qiviut, and angora, and also for the care of your knitwear. And the Fibre Rinse helps restore the ph and helps with anti-static. The Fibre Rinse can also be used in a spray bottle, in a mix of 5 parts water to 1 part rinse, for anti-static spray when you are combing, or carding your fleece. If you haven’t tried the Unicorn product, give it a try. I think you will really like it.

And to us, she concludes: “Thanks for making a such a wonderful product. It certainly makes processing our own fleeces so much more pleasant.” Thank YOU for being a wonderful customer, Sherri!

Power Scour makes the ‘impossible’ possible

Susan McFarland of Susan’s Fiber Shop called us recently to share her story of an alpaca fleece in terrible condition, with “rock-like sections” and terribly greasy dirt. The owner of this fleece said it was from a prize animal, and she knew that Susan could “clean anything.” After looking it over, Susan wasn’t as convinced.

After trying all the techniques that had worked before to scour raw fiber, Susan was ready to toss the fleece out. Then, as is the case many times with a new way to tackle a problem, she saw a sample of Power Scour. The small sample pack went into a new tub of water with the “impossible” fleece.

The next morning, Susan tells us, she was shocked to see all the dirt on the bottom of the tub and a nice, clean fleece! She just couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t sure that it needed another washing! That’s when she gave us a call, and we’re happy to now have her as one of our biggest fans.

If you have a Unicorn Fibre products story to share with us, please drop us a line. Photos are welcome, too. Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Mary had her lamb, Anna has her Madame

Anna had Jolie Madame, with fleece NOT white as snow. 

And everywhere that Anna went, Jolie would surely go. 

Jolie Madame went to the barn, and Anna sheared all her wool.

She cleaned it up with Fibre Wash, to restore its pretty hue!

Jolie Madame is a show animal, and her baby fleece micron count was 16. Precious “Royal Baby” fiber, so lustrous and soft. We only needed a bit of Fibre Wash to clean this fleece for processing. Keep in mind that the wrong product could “lay down” and make fibre heavy, or could be too harsh, resulting in a disruption in the fibre cuticle and diminishing its strength.

Paul loves our products…

Paul at Picarsso Auto Spa is such a fervent believer in Unicorn Fibre Wash and its sister brand, Leather Therapy (leather care products), that he devoted an entire blog post and two videos about it. We promise, he’s not on the payroll — he’s just a true believer in our products! Check out his review here, and his videos below.

A doggone good case for Fibre Wash

This is the time of year when the holiday rush can get the best of us — and our furry friends. We recently heard from Bonnie, whose chocolate-loving puppy nearly ruined her Oriental rug. Once again, it was Fibre Wash to the rescue! Here’s Bonnie’s tail… er, tale:

Our terrier, Tasha, craves chocolate. We had some hot cocoa one afternoon, then forgot about the cocoa powder sitting on the counter when we left for dinner. Fast-forward to our return home, and there is the dog, looking very pleased with herself. She took the canister off the counter and into the living room where she gnawed the cardboard canister open.

There were several large spots where powder piles had landed, then been licked off (and into) the rug. Her tongue turned the powder into a paste and then pushed it into the rug. Most of the stains were, of course, on the lighter colored parts of the rug, not the darker areas.

First things first: Bonnie had to get Tasha to throw up the chocolate, because it can be lethal to dogs. Once that unpleasant task was taken care of, she was able to get back to the task at hand. She picks up the story from there:

I started with my usual go-to rug spotter, which I tamped into the carpet and hoped for the best. The next morning, there was an even worse dried paste. It reminded me of the flour and water paste we used to make for craft projects when we were kids (and also feed to our terrier, but that’s another story). Now what? I scraped the dried paste off the surface as best I could, and then turned to Google. Step one for “chocolate stain on wool” was the useful reminder that I was dealing with a “fat” stain, and should start with a mild detergent solution.

That’s when I remembered that I still had a bit of the sample of Fibre Wash you sent me. I figured if it could clean dirty alpaca wool, it might work on the rug.

Yes! It was like using an eraser! I dampened an old terry washcloth, wrung it out, and started wiping. The chocolate came out without any scrubbing, and the carpet looks better than ever!

We’re glad to hear it, Bonnie — and we hope Tasha gets lots of doggy-appropriate treats in her stocking this year to keep her off the naughty list!

Leather Therapy fights mold and mildew

Saddle up! Unicorn Fibre’s own Anna Carner recently wrote an excellent article on how to inhibit mold and mildew in leather. Her expertise, of course, lies in Unicorn Fibre’s sister product, Leather Therapy.

Check out the full article here: http://www.wikihow.com/Inhibit-Mold-and-Mildew-in-Leather

And our YouTube video on the topic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4skVzgTtk&list=UU47S0EXxgABQvutArpx592g&index=5&feature=plcp

Washing fiber in hard water

What does it mean to have “hard” or “soft” water? According to the APEC Water website, FreeDrinkingWater.com:

• Hard water “contains an appreciable quantity of dissolved minerals (like calcium and magnesium).”
• Soft water, by contrast, is “treated water in which the only ion is sodium.”

The site goes on to explain that rain is by nature “soft,” but as it makes its way into the groundwater system, it picks up minerals such as lime, chalk, and the aforementioned calcium and magnesium. From a taste perspective, harder water is more desirable — the minerals have health benefits, and the flavor is preferable to the sometimes-salty taste of soft water.

But those same minerals are likely to blame for your spotty dishes, the scaly layer inside your kettle, your sticky-feeling hair and that nasty ring around your bathtub. Simply put, they don’t play nicely with soap. Soft water leads to rich, bubbly lather; hard water leads to sticky scum.

The APEC Water article notes that “communities that draw water directly from snow-filled mountain streams enjoy nearly ideal water in terms of a low amount of hardness.” However, the rest of us (an estimated 85% in the US) aren’t as lucky.

Unicorn Fibre prides itself in quickly and effectively removing dirt, grime and particles from raw wool, processed fiber and finished garments and other objects made from fiber. When we do get a call from a less-than-satisfied customer, we almost always find that they are in a market with hard water, without a water-softening system. Such systems can be expensive, so what can you do if you find you’re in such a situation, but want to maximize your use of our Fibre Wash, Fibre Rinse and Power Scour products?

First, don’t subscribe to the “more is better” theory. Using more of the product is not necessarily going to help, as it’s a matter of a chemical reaction of the soap with your mineral-infused water.

What can help, however, is adding a teaspoonful of baking soda to the mix. It helps neutralize the pH in the water without a major impact on the efficacy of the Fibre Wash, Fibre Rinse or Power Scour product.

We’re also currently researching our own Hard Water Booster product, to ensure there is no efficacy impact on our products. We’re looking for participants in our pilot program, so if you’re interested, please send an email to info@unicornfibre.com with your name, city, state and any information you can provide about your local soil (clay, sand, silt, etc.). If you’re chosen for the program, we’ll contact you directly for more details. Also, keep up to date on our product innovation progress on our website and on our Facebook, Twitter and Ravelry pages.