How to Wash Cashmere Sweaters
What you want
Wool wash or child shampoo: Soak, a no-rinse detergent, will prevent effort and time while you’re hand-washing cashmere and different delicates. Baby shampoo can also be light sufficient to make use of on cashmere.
A clear sink or different water basin: It must be massive sufficient to soak your sweater.
A drying rack or a white bathtub towel: If you don’t have area for a rack, you’ll be able to lay the sweater atop a big bathtub towel on a flat floor. But keep away from coloured towels as a result of the dye might switch onto your sweater.
A cashmere comb: This comb will assist take away lint, fuzz, and mud out of your sweater between wears and washes.
Steamer (non-obligatory): Hand-washed clothes typically dries with some wrinkles or crunchiness, however a steamer can carry again its suppleness and luster.
How typically do you have to wash cashmere?
You don’t want to scrub a cashmere sweater after each put on. Derek Guy of the style web site Put This On washes his sweaters “each seven to 10 wears, and on the finish of every winter season.”
Plan for about 15 to twenty minutes to hand-wash your sweaters, plus drying time.
Spot-treat
Try to deal with any stains on a cashmere sweater straight away. Set-in stains are a lot tougher to raise off. Never use OxiClean or something with bleach on cashmere; be sure that to examine the label of stain removers.
To take away a stain, put a small quantity of Soak detergent or child shampoo on a cotton swab and rub it into the stain. Let it sit for not less than half-hour earlier than rinsing out the stain with water or washing your cashmere.
Wash your cashmere the best means
Fill a clear sink or basin with lukewarm water (by no means scorching water). Add no-rinse detergent or child shampoo to the water. If you’re utilizing Soak, you’ll want solely a few capful per gallon of water.
Submerge your sweater within the water, and transfer it round to loosen up any dust.
Let the sweater soak within the soapy water for about quarter-hour, giving it a number of light swirls once in a while.
If you utilize child shampoo, you’ll must rinse out the cleaning soap: Empty the sink or tub, fill it up once more with water, and re-submerge the sweater. Do not place your sweater underneath operating water as a result of doing so can harm the material. If you utilize Soak, there’s no must rinse.
Gently squeeze out extra water from the sweater. You can compress it right into a ball and squeeze the water, or use the towel-rolling methodology we shared in our information to cleansing down jackets. Lay a white bathtub towel flat on a floor, place your sweater on prime of the towel, after which roll each collectively, squeezing to get extra water out.
Whatever you do, don’t wring your cashmere.
Lay the sweater flat to dry
Cashmere and different moist sweaters should be laid flat and blocked—that’s, formed in order that they dry accurately.
Dry your sweater on a flat drying rack. Do not dangle it as much as dry or the material will stretch. If you don’t have a rack, lay a white towel (not the one you used for wringing out extra water) on a desk, and dry the sweater on prime of it.
Taking care of cashmere between washes
Remember that you simply shouldn’t wash your cashmere after each put on. A lint curler will assist take away lint, fuzz, and mud between wears and washes. A sweater comb can even assist take away stray drugs, with out damaging the knit.
Always wash a cashmere sweater earlier than storing it away for the summer season. Dirty cashmere is like catnip for moths.