How To Wash A Cashmere Sweater
How to wash a cashmere sweater
Let’s talk science first.
The word wool is often used in the fiber arts community to mean fiber from an animal. Knitters use the word wool when they talk about knitting with fiber from a sheep, yak, goat, alpaca, etc. Technically, wool comes from sheep and other animal fibers like goat, alpaca, rabbit, yak, etc are categorized as Specialty Fiber.
When it comes to laundering your knitwear, the 2 categories can make a big difference. And since we are talking about cashmere, let’s compare the fiber properties from a cashmere goat to a sheep so you can see why we launder wool and cashmere differently.
If you look at wool under a microscope, you will see it has an outer layer of overlapping scales. When washed with agitation, soap, heat and cold … well, you know where I am going with this. Your adult size sweater turns into a garment for a toddler! That process is called Felting. The wool scales open and grab onto each other and act like velcro. The more agitation, the more they stick together and grab onto each other – turning the individual stitches of a wool sweater into a dense mat of solid fabric.
Cashmere is much harder to felt!
Here is why.
Although cashmere does have scales, they are smaller, thinner and the scale pattern is different. Wool scales form a mosaic like shape around the fiber where cashmere scales spiral around the fiber. The spiral shape and smaller size make cashmere less susceptible to felting. That is great news when it comes to laundering your sweater! But that does not mean you can just toss your cashmere into the washer without precaution. Cashmere fiber is finer and smoother than wool, making it more delicate. Which is why we love cashmere so much, its delicate fiber is soft to the skin. Because it is delicate, we need to take some precautions when laundering to ensure our cashmere knitwear is taken care of. Science lesson over … Let’s get to washing!
LAUNDERING YOUR HAND KNIT CASHMERE SWEATER
If you knit your sweater/garment, it is important to first wet block it. Stitches need to relax after they’ve been knit. Wet blocking will allow your stitches to relax, it will clean any grease or grime and it will loft that cashmere fiber into that glorious cashmere halo glow.
Wet Blocking Your Hand Knit Cashmere Garment
- Fill a sink or bowl with warm water. Put in a drop of wool safe washing soap or detergent. Never use bleach. Bleach dissolves animal fibers.
- Submerge item into the water and let it soak for 10 – 15 minutes.
- Drain water. Using the same water temperature, gently rinse garment.
- Squeeze out excess water. Do not wring or twist as this can distort the stitches.
- Lay your item onto a towel and roll it up into the towel. Squeeze out excess water.
- Lay knitwear on a flat surface. At this point, you can maneuver the fabric to get it into shape. Use blocking mats and pins if necessary.
- Let air dry.
After this initial wet blocking, you don’t need to do it again. The stitches are set into shape. Any further laundering can be done by machine washing or hand washing. See below for both methods.
Collapsable washing bin with drain
I have knitting friends that use these collapsable washing bins when they block or wash their hand knit items. I love that this is compact for storage and has a drain! It holds over 2 gallons of water making it a great size for washing or blocking a sweater.
sping washer and dryer
My personal favorite way to wash a sweater is using a spin washer/dryer. I follow the Wet Blocking instructions 1 – 3 from above, drain the water then set the spin dryer to spin out excess water. This eliminates the need to roll it up into a towel. You can go right to laying the garment out flat to dry!
LAUNDERING A CASHMERE SWEATER
For commercially knit sweaters, the stitches are already set, therefore, you can skip the wet blocking process and go straight to laundering. Laundering/washing cashmere can be done either by hand washing or using a machine washing. For all of my personal cashmere knitwear and the cashmere knitwear I sell, I use the machine washing technique.
Machine Washing
Place your cashmere knitwear into a laundering bag and machine wash on delicate in cold water using a small amount of wool safe laundering soap or detergent. You can wash several cashmere knit items at the same time, be sure that each item is in its own laundering bag.
When the wash cycle is done, take the item out of the laundering bag and dry it on an Air Dry/Delicate setting, low heat, in the dryer for 10-15 minutes. Only dry one item at a time. Multiple items can tangle up in the dry and stretch and distort stitches. At the end of this dry cycle, your knit item will still be damp. Lay item on a flat surface and allow to air dry fully.
Hand Washing
Hand washing will be similar to wet blocking.
- Fill a sink or bowl with warm water. Put in a drop of wool safe washing soap or detergent. Never use bleach. Bleach dissolves animal fibers.
- Submerge item into the water and let it soak for 10-15 minutes.
- For any stains or dirt, gently rub a small amount of soap or detergent on the area until clean.
- Drain water. Using the same water temperature, gently rinse garment.
- Squeeze out excess water. Do not wring or twist.
- Lay your item onto a towel and roll up into the towel. Squeeze out excess water.
- Dry in the dryer on Air Dry or Delicate setting, low heat for 10 – 15 minutes.
- Lay on a flat surface to finish drying.
KEEP CASHMERE SWEATERS FRESH BETWEEN WASHINGS
Most cashmere doesn’t need to be cleaned very often. I use a fabric antibacterial spray on my sweaters to keep them fresh in between laundering. Look for a fabric safe antibacterial spray that does not contain bleach. Spray onto your sweater, targeting spots like underarm area and neck. Let it dry for a few minutes before putting it back in the closet.
Spot clean your sweater as needed using a wool safe soap or detergent. Always let dry completely before putting away.
And there you have it! A step by step guide to washing your cashmere sweaters and a mini fiber science lesson too.
Thanks for reading! Enjoy those clean sweaters.
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