One of my sisters gave me this beautiful shawl. One of my favorite colors is purple, and she knew I would adore the color and style. I do. The challenge for me was just about how it smelled when new. Given that it is imported, it was impregnated with some sort of disinfectant to cross the border. I expect most of you are familiar with it as it smells a bit like incense? What to do?

I first filled the sink with cool water to which I added 1 cup of white distilled vinegar. I gently swirled in the shawl until it was fully emersed and let it soak for an hour. I next washed the shawl by hand using Ecover’s wool detergent. After carefully rinsing I smelled the shawl, found the smell removed, and lay it out to dry. If it still had some residual odor I would have followed all the steps, above, but substituted baking soda for the vinegar. (I’d first have dissolved the baking soda in very warm water before adding to the cool water.)