A weaving workroom: wooden looms strung with warp, bolts of cloth resting on the beam

Care & Repair

What a piece asks of you, and what the house will do to it.

A wooden clothes brush resting in a crate

Washing

By hand, in cool water, with a wool detergent or a little mild shampoo.

Press the water out against the side of the basin; never wring it. A knit holds its shape because the loops lie straight, and twisting takes them out of line. Rinse until the water runs clear. Wash it more often than you think you should, in the sense that cashmere is a fibre that likes water and a sweater worn against the skin is better for it. Dry cleaning is not necessary, and the solvents dull the hand over years.

A knitted piece folded on a plank in afternoon light

Drying and keeping

Lay it flat on a towel, out of the sun and away from a radiator, and ease it back to its own measurements while it is still damp.

Never hang a knit to dry: the weight of the wet cloth pulls the shoulders down and they do not come back. Fold it to store it, with the sleeves laid in, and keep it in a drawer rather than on a hanger. Cedar or lavender in the drawer. Not mothballs, which get into the fibre and stay there.

A fine-gauge knit in close-up, the stitches small enough to count

Pilling

A new cashmere sweater will pill where it rubs: under the arms, at the cuffs, across a seat belt.

It is not a fault and it is not a sign of short fibre. It is the shorter ends working their way out, and it stops once they are gone, usually after the first few wearings. Take them off with a comb made for it, with the piece laid flat, working in one direction. Do not pull them off with your fingers, which takes the loop out along with the pill.

Spools of thread in a drawer, a hand passing over them, in black and white

Repairs

The house repairs its own pieces, for as long as there is a house.

A hole, a pull, a seam that has opened, a zip that has failed: write, say what happened and send a photograph of it, and you will be told what can be done and what it costs before anything is agreed. A piece knitted fully fashioned and linked by hand can be opened at the seam and rejoined, which is most of the reason it was made that way. Send the number inside the neck with the photograph and the house can look up the yarn and the lot it was knitted from.